


A New Vision for the Future

by watchingthestars13



Series: The Life And Times Of Emma Barton [7]
Category: Hawkeye (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Emma getting into trouble, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Still ignoring AoU ever happening ever!!, Vent climbing, Will add tags as I go, cursing, mission, not as bad as it could be though, violence probably
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-01
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-04-16 18:19:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 27,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14170773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/watchingthestars13/pseuds/watchingthestars13
Summary: In, March, a few months after the Anne fiasco, Emma's back in her tower and comfortable with her family again. Clint and Natasha finally get to go back to work, and Tony's cooked up something that's gonna blow everyone's mind. Not everyone's super-happy about it.





	1. New Additions And Mobsters

**Author's Note:**

> *crawls out from underneath my rock* Um... Hi?  
> First of all, I'd just like to tell all my old readers that you, YOU are the reason I am writing this. I've been getting so many wonderful, sweet comments on my old Emma work, making my heart go all !!AAAAAAAH!! I love you, I cherish you, I could honestly not ask for any better readers, you're amazing. Special thanks to avaenox for showing me her beautiful fanart and making my heart go extra AAAAAAAH, you're amazing too.   
> To my new readers: welcome. I'm sorry. Thank you so much!   
> I'm almost done with this segment already, at least the writing part, so the updates will probably not take too long! After this, I'm considering starting a long work where I just post snippets from her life later on, along with what happens with the rest of the Avengers. How would you guys feel about that? Lemme know in the comments!!  
> Enjoy!! <3<3<3

 

"Jarvis, where's Tony?" Emma said thoughtfully as she chewed on her pencil, staring at her science notes. She'd been studying practically the entire weekend, trying to get ready for a test the following Wednesday. It's not that she didn't remember stuff, her memory was startlingly firm on some points. It was just that she didn't understand everything, like what the hell Amperes were, and why Volts were a thing. Bruce was at a conference, so she only had one genius to talk to, and sadly enough the less patient one. 

"Sir is in his workshop," Jarvis replied. "Would you like to call him?"

"What? Dude, c'mon. I always need the excercise," she said happily, walking over to the elevator with notes in hand.

"Elevators don't excercise you, doll!" came Bucky's call from the living room, and she smirked at the sound of his voice. 

"Now, now, let's not be picky!" she called back, just as Wanda appeared in front of her face.

"I will help," Wanda stated. "He likes to disappear in machines."

"He sure does," Emma agreed, only jumping slightly, and let Wanda join her in the elevator. 

"Why are you wearing cape?" Wanda asked curiously. 

"This is my study cape. It makes me feel less angry about studying when I can make it swoosh around my ankles." Wanda gave her a disbelieving look, but said nothing. She'd learned during her time at the tower that Emma had her eccentricities, and it was easier to just accept it than try to find out the logic behind her actions.

"Okay," she said, and Emma smiled up at her when the elevator slowed to a stop by Tony's workshop.The child was always _smiling_ , always ready to laugh. It bothered Wanda a little. A child that had seen such horrors such as this one should not be so ready to laugh. Wanda herself had seen about the same level of horrors, and yet she didn't feel like smiling all the time. 

"Tony, Tony, wherefore art thou, Tony?" Emma called into the workshop, and Dummy came whirring forward, a tennisball in his claw, with Butterfingers and You following him. "Hi guys! How are you doing?" Emma asked, running her fingers over Dummy's servos, batting You's claw out of her hair distantly, and simultaneously nudging Butterfingers' claw with her elbow. All of this without dropping her notebook. The bots chirped and whirred gleefully. "Want me to toss the ball? Come on, give it."

Dummy let go of the ball, and Emma tossed it deep into the pits of the workshop. Immediately, the bots zoomed after it, disappearing out of sight. Emma laughed, _again with the laughter_ Wanda thought, and then hopped onto Tony's desk chair. 

"He's not here, Jarvis," Emma pointed out. 

"Sir took one of the suits down to a sub-level basement to check on some readings on the arc reactor that's powering the tower," Jarvis replied. "Sir is deeply in his thoughts, and has 'tuned out', so to speak. I'll have him come up as soon as he's come back to his senses."

Emma snorted. 

"Yeah, alright," she said, and kicked her feet under the table, only for her foot to bump into something. "What's that?"

Jarvis didn't answer, so Emma dropped down on the floor to investigate. The box wasn't dusty, not really, but it clearly hadn't been used in a while. It was metallic and had a number of dials and numbers blinking on the screen lazily. She did the cool toss-this-onto-the-big-screen swipe with her fingers, and crawled out from under the desk again, peeking up at the big holo-screens above Tony's desk.

There were curves rising and falling, a couple of numbers staying pretty much the same, and a few blue lines that looked like static on a graph that just kept going. 

"Hey, these look like vitals," Emma said, and Wanda walked around the table, finding the fat cables coming out from the box and trailing off into a corner of the workshop that looked like it hadn't been lit up in a while. 

Wanda raised an eyebrow at Emma, who grinned back. 

"Let's investigate," Emma said, crawling under the table to follow the cables around a corner. 

"I would advise you to stay away, Miss Emma, Miss Maximoff," Jarvis warned. 

"You're no fun, Jay," Emma said as she and Wanda found a part of the workshop that was entirely dark, except for the lights coming in from the huge windows facing New York City. The little area was only lit up by a dim blue glow coming from a box the size of a casket. "Holy crap. What's that?"

"Stay away, Miss Emma," Jarvis said, sounding a little cold now, which intriuged Emma. 

"Seriously, what is up with you today? You're all tense, Jarvis," Emma protested. "Hit the lights." Jarvis didn't follow her command, so she assumed he was still being pissy. "Fine. Wanda? Glow-stick, please."

"You think you're funny," Wanda complained, but held a hand up like a torch of scarlet light. 

The top of the casket-like box was made of glass, and Emma crouched by the side of it, running a hand over the smooth surface. Immediately, the casket lit up from within. A face came into view, eyes closed and skin red and green.

"Mother of fuck!" Emma yelped when she looked inside. "Holy fucking shit. That's a person!" Wanda came closer as Emma pressed her face to the glass. "Why is there a person in there?!"

"It is not a person," Jarvis argued, finally. "It's an android."

"I can read him," Wanda said, sounding a little shocked and a little dreamy, placing her hand on the casket-box. She pressed it to the glass, and her lips twitched into a smile. "He's dreaming."

"Dreaming?" Emma exclaimed. "Jarvis, that is not a robot!"

"It's an android, Miss Emma. It does not dream," Jarvis said, his voice urgent.

"Wanda are you sure?" Emma pressed, but the shocked, blissed out look on Wanda's face spoke absolute volumes. "Wow, yeah no. That is not a robot!" Emma shouted back. "What... Why is Tony making a robot anyway?"

"Dr. Banner and Sir-"

"Bruce is in on this?!" she exclaimed, examining the box with her fingers, finding the controlpad. Wanda was still touching the glass, scarlet-flashing eyes locked on the bot-person's face. "How do we get it out?"

"We don't do anything," Jarvis said, sounding mildly annoyed. "Do not touch the cradle."

"Cradle? That's what they're calling it?" she asked as she twisted a dial, making the box start humming loudly. Wanda gasped, and Emma shot her a look. "What?"

"Nothing, just... It noticed," Wanda told her softly, and Emma shrugged before continuing her fiddling. She could hear urgent beeping from the vital signs that she'd put on the holo-screen in the main area, and she flicked a switch on the controlpad that made the room around them light up like it'd been hit with a surge of energy.

"Do not touch the cradle," Jarvis repeated, louder, and Dummy rolled over with a whirring noise, trying to grab her to pull her away, but she only batted at him as she cranked another dial, watching as the lights went way up inside the box. 

She could see hundreds of calculations flashing over the screen on top of the cradle, could see that there was still a bit of energy needed to make the circuit complete. Hopping up on the cradle on her knees, she pressed her fingers to the glass covering the face of the bot. 

"C'mon, c'mon," she said, and saw the glass crack underneath her fingers just in time for the bot's eyes to snap open, and then there was a sudden burst of light and Wanda screamed, loud enough that it sounded like a siren, clutching her head. 

The form shot out of the box like a missile, and Emma was right in the way, getting herself tackled to the ground for her troubles. Years of instincts and training made her roll with the speed and use it against her opponent, tossing the android-person-bot-thing into the air with the push of her feet. She got her own feet back under her just in time to see the bot-person-android-thing slowing in the air, caught itself just before it crashed into the windows in Tony's shop. The thing stared out into the New York City lights, and stilled. 

Emma watched in fascination as it stared, a hand coming up to touch the glass before it slowly descended and landed on the floor. 

Suddenly there was a gust of wind, and Pietro was by his sister, clutching her to his chest as her fingers trembled where they had a claw-like grip on his shoulders, and Tony's head appeared from the entrance to the sub-basements. He stared with wide eyes at them all. 

"What the actual _fuck_ , Emma!" he exclaimed, but Emma couldn't take her eyes off the bot standing in front of her. "Wait. Jarvis? Is that..."

"Miss Emma touched the cradle, despite instructions not to," Jarvis complained. 

"Oh yeah, you betcha. Jarvis protested like a true son of yours," Emma snorted, still not looking away from the smooth lines of the human-looking thing in front of her. 

"Oh, we so need team meeting," Pietro said firmly, squinting suspiciously at the android. "Right now."

"I'd say that's a good plan," Emma agreed as the android looked down at it's feet and hands with a concentrated look on it's face. 

\---

"What exactly happened again?" Clint asked, looking suspicious.

"Emma did what an entire group of scientists couldn't and managed to override whatever was wrong with our invention," Tony said, looking a little giddy as he plugged something into the android's neck. "Stay still for a second, buddy, just gotta do some readings now that you're out of your cradle."

"Hey, all I knew was that there was a person in a box in Tony's workshop, okay, and we love you Tony, but you have a tendency to make things that are alive, with feelings," Emma said angrily from her seat on the couch in the workshop, where she'd been sat when all the adults arrived. "You don't leave a person in a box just because you don't have time for them anymore."

"It's not that I didn't have time," Tony exclaimed, examining the android with amazed eyes. "Dr. Cho said that the calculations were incorrect, that the cradle wouldn't be able to sustain him, that he wouldn't..." Tony trailed off. "You... You are magnificent."

The android stared at his creator thoughtfully. 

"Honestly, I'm- I'm just. Wow. I've outdone myself this time. This is..." Tony cut himself off, seemed to have trouble completing a whole sentence, and shot off a blinding, real grin. "Wow. Call Pym, Cho, and Bruce, Jarvis. How're we holding up?"

"Stable and independent," Jarvis replied smoothly. "All doctors have been notified."

"This is what you've been working on?" Steve said, a loved-up and amazed look on his face. "Tony, you're absolutely amazing."

"Heh. I know," Tony smirked, but then tapped on his Starktab distractedly. "I can't believe it worked. Why'd Cho say it wouldn't?"

"Is he sentinent?" Clint asked, and Wanda's eyes flashed scarlet as she stared with big eyes at the android. 

"Where did you get that?" she asked instead of answering, pointing to the yellow crystal on the android's forehead. 

"I'm gonna pull a SHIELD on you, and say 'classified'," Tony said, twirling around the android like he was inspecting a particularly attractive person, trying to size them up. "Could you hold your arm up for me, buddy?"

The android obeyed, and Tony laughed as the material of the android's skin moved with the motion, checking his Starktab again and mumbling something under his breath that was probably along the lines of how amazing he was.

"What's his name?" Bucky asked suspiciously, crossing his arms and leaning back on the couch-armrest. The android blinked it's creepy-looking eyes, and Natasha stared at it thoughtfully. 

"I do not have a name," he stated in a smooth voice, and everyone but Tony recoiled. Even Wanda hadn't seen that one coming, all of them staring at him. Tony beamed. 

"You're my vision for the future, kiddo," he said, clasping a hand over the android's shoulder that didn't have a cord sticking out of it. "You can have any name you want. Except I'm not allowed to name living things, and you, you are definitely very alive." 

"Vision," Emma stated. All eyes turned to her as she smiled at the humanoid robot. "Your name should be Vision."

"Vision," the android repeated in a monotone. 

"Or not," Emma frowned. "I guess-"

"I have no objections," it stated, and Emma blinked, because that's what it was. A statement. 

"Is he sentient?" Clint repeated, louder for good measure. "Nobody answered me."

"Yes," Wanda replied softly. The weight of that seemed to press down on the entire room all of a sudden, and then Bucky gave a low whistle. Even Tony looked a little stunned.

"Not _sentient_ -sentient. She means, like, AI-sentient," Tony clarified. Wanda and Vision locked eyes, and she let out a breath. 

"He's beautiful," she whispered. When everyone raised their eyebrows at her, she blushed, actually, honest-to-god _blushed_. Even Pietro seemed to baffle at that, and Emma grinned at Vision.

"Very pretty," Emma agreed. Vision stared at the cape around Emma's shoulders, and suddenly a yellow cape materialized around his own shoulders. "Hey, dude, cool cape."

"Yes," Vision agreed, brushing a green and red hand against the yellow fabric. "Very... Cool."

"I like him already," Clint chuckled. "Do you eat?"

"I don't require food, no," Vision said, and it's voice came out a little less robot-sounding this time, a little more melodious. 

"He learns, then?" Natasha asked, raising a cool eyebrow at Tony. "How did that go for you, last time? Creating an android?"

"Well, then it was just me and Bruce. I got Pym and Cho involved this time. And Janet for the general shape and size of him, which is why our buddy here looks like an actual GQ-model. According to her, my Iron Man suits are too 'blocky'. Which is obviously a lie, because they're awesome." Tony pulled the cord out of Vision's shoulder and smiled at the android. "Welcome to the world, Vision. Jay, help connect him to the internet."

Suddenly the holo-screen lit up behind them, and Bruce's face appeared, looking sort of distressed. 

"What do you mean 'it effing worked'?" he asked, sort of loudly, and with extremely wide eyes. His eyes immediately fell on Vision, and Vision stared back. "Oh, holy crap. Holy- What _happened_? I thought we were still doing the math on the consequences for the boot-up."

"Emma sort of attacked the cradle," Tony relayed. 

"Person in a box in Tony's lab! For all I knew, it could've been a fucking corpse for real!" Emma exclaimed defiantly, back to crossing her arms over her chest.

"Okay, yeah, good point," Bruce said, a dazzled smile on his face. "Hi. How are you feeling?"

"Functioning at full capacity," Vision replied, and it's voice was taking on a different tone now, again. 

"Jay, show me the readouts?" Bruce said, still looking a little awed. "Tony, have you called Hank and Helen?"

"Yeah, duh!" Tony said, giving Bruce a 'you idiot' look. "Of course."

"Well, you tend to get protective of your projects," Bruce said distantly, putting his glasses on as he stared at the screen thoughtfully.

" _Project_?" Bucky said, sounding disgusted and angry. All surprised eyes turned to him. "Practically a fucking human being and you're calling 'm a project?"

"Hey, Buck, that's not how they mean it," Steve hurried to soothe. Bucky muttered a few choice words in Russian and took off for the elevator.

"Yeah, well, next time you wanna talk about people like they're projects, leave me the fuck out of the conversation," Bucky growled, and disappeared up the stairs. Pietro tapped his foot a little angrily on the spot. 

"I don't trust that," he said, nodding towards Vision with a frown on his face. "What if he does like Ultron and tries to kill?"

"He won't," Bruce promised. "We made mistakes last time that we didn't repeat in this one. For one, he doesn't have a primary goal. That's what set Ultron off in the first place."

"I don't trust your science," Pietro said sharply, and took off in a burst of speed. 

"Is everyone done throwing a tantrum now?" Clint asked a little irritably. "Seriously, as much as I love a good ole' scientific breakthrough, I was also trying to take a fucking nap when there was suddenly an emergency meeting. As long as it's not gonna murder us in our beds, I'm cool with him. Nat?"

"I agree. I trust the majority of Tony's creations, I trust Bruce's belief that this robot isn't entirely violent, I trust Helen's understanding of science, and I trust Pym's assessment that the robot works. That's all. And, if the robot acts out of turn, we'll be able to deal with it," Natasha stated. 

"How?" Emma asked curiously. Natasha held up a few fingers to count on.

"Widow-bites. Bucky. Jarvis. You. Pym. Hawkeyes and their various arrows. Do I need to continue?" she said, directing her question at Vision. Everyone stared in silence for a moment.

"No. You need to quit threatening my creations, Nat," Tony said, putting his hands on his hips, looking a little annoyed. Natasha raised an eyebrow at him threateningly, and Tony hid behind Steve. 

"That was a threat," Vision nodded, as if acknowledging that he understood. "Yes. All right."

"Dr. Pym is on his way," Jarvis relayed. Bruce tapped his fingers against the desk he was sitting at. 

"I won't be able to skip out of here until tomorrow. I still have a presentation later today, and I can't get out of London until then."

"I got you," Tony said, waving at Jarvis. "Pep will fix it."

"Tony," Bruce complained, but Tony was having none of it. 

"C'mon, this is like a baby being born! You missed the birth but you gotta see the baby," he urged. 

"Should I be jealous you're making kids with other men?" Steve joked a little distantly, and Tony grabbed his ass lovingly. 

"You know you shouldn't," he promised, giving him a kiss. 

"Hey Bruce, you got a break right now?" Emma asked. He smiled at her. 

"I have lunch. Why? Need help with Science?"

"Yeah," Emma admitted, and Bruce nodded. "Awesome! Jarvis, put Bruce in my Starktab."

"Of course, Miss Emma," Jarvis said, and Emma beamed at Vision, kissed Natasha on the cheek, and then took off for the elevator, grabbing her science notes from Tony's desk as she went.

\---

Clint nudged Natasha's leg underneath the desk they were seated at, and she looked up at him suspiciously. He grinned at her. 

"Watch me," he said, and Natasha rolled her eyes, but decided to amuse him, and leaned back in her chair. Clint took a rubberband, wrapped it around his finger with his hand in the shape of a fingergun, and pointed it into the air, squinting a little.

With a minor flick of his finger, the rubberband disappeared into the large office-area the field agents shared when they weren't out on a mission and had to do paperwork. When Natasha raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him, Clint held a finger up in the universal "wait for it" gesture. 

There was the scraping of a chair's feet against the hard, stone floor, and the clicking of angry, determined heels, and Natasha was pretty sure she knew exactly who it was by the time a blonde head of hair swished around the corner of their cubicle.

Sharon Carter was decked out in a SHIELD hoodie, hair up in a ponytail and looking decidedly done with a bored Clint's shit.

"How ya doin' Sharon?" he smiled innocently at her, and Sharon used the rubberband stretched between her pointer finger and thumb to give him a sharp snap on the inside of his arm, like they were schoolchildren. Natasha restrained her snicker, and turned it into a huff, smiling at the impatient Sharon. 

"Ow! I need that arm, you know!" Clint bemoaned, rubbing his arm.

"Can't be worse than getting bow-burns, jackass," Sharon said cheerfully. "I can't wait for someone to boot your ass out of here."

"You don't think that's exactly what I want, Sharon, dear?" Clint asked, and she used the rubberband to snap him on the forehead this time. "Oow! Tasha, rescue me!"

"You got yourself in this mess," Natasha said patiently, pressing her lips together to stop her smile from widening. "Get yourself out of it by apologizing."

"Or go get me a coffee from the cafeteria. Otherwise, I'm taking this rubberband hostage and the liberty of snapping it on your person," Sharon threatened, and Clint pouted. 

"Why are you so mean?"

"You hit me with a rubberband across the room, Barton, of course I'm gonna be mad about it!"

"Where did it hit you?" Natasha questioned. 

"The neck," Sharon said a little angrily. Natasha shrugged, and went back to her report. 

"Fair enough," she agreed, just as Clint made offended sputtering-noises.

The door to the shared field-agent-office opened, and the tension in the room immediately rose a few notches. Coulson stepped into the room, a file underneath his arm. A mission. Clint and Natasha made quick eyecontact, and so did Sharon with her partner, over her shoulder.

"Agent Barton, Agent Romanoff?" Coulson said calmly into the room, and Clint whooped, hopping out of his chair.

"See ya, suckers!" he shouted victoriously as he skipped over to the stairs leading to the door, where Coulson gave him a bemused look. Natasha shifted her papers into a pile, and placed them in her drawer. 

"Very mature, Barton!" Sharon called after him with a frown, and a couple of agents around them grinned, or rolled their eyes lovingly at Clint's antics. Sharon gave Natasha a nod, and Natasha nodded back, before following Clint up the steps. 

Once out of the office, Clint pulled his phone out of his pocket, and frowned at it. 

"What are we doing for dinner?" he asked Natasha as Coulson lead them towards one of the briefing rooms nearby.

"Tony's turn, so I'm guessing hamburgers and fries, why?" 

"Kate just texted me about where you can buy whole, canned chickens. I just wanted to make sure that wasn't what we were eating tonight," he said, a mildly disgusted look on his face. 

"A whole, canned chicken? Why canned?" Natasha asked incredulously as Coulson held the door open for them. 

"I honestly couldn't say. Also, Emma wants to go out with friends tomorrow," he stated.

"I can't believe the sort of stuff you Americans come up with," Natasha said incredulously as they took a seat. "And which ones?"

"Layla and Damian. Hope's going on a weekend-trip with her dad and TJ had a band-thing, supposedly. I personally think it's just an excuse so she can stay out with Damian later."

"If you keep up that attitude, she's going to feel the need to lie to us about it anyway," Natasha pointed out. 

"Agents?" Coulson said mildly. "Mission threatening the sanctity of our nation here?"

Natasha and Clint looked over at him, and Clint rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish smile. 

"Sorry, Coulson. We've been a little out of it lately, what with getting Emma back in school and cleaning up the mess after Anne. And Tony made some cool discovery earlier today, so the tower's been filled with scientists and stuff."

"Oh? What kind?" he asked in his usual blasé way, and Natasha sighed. 

"Oh, very complicated. We would never be able to understand what he kept spouting," she said in a deadpan, and Coulson huffed in amusement. 

"Ah, of course. Avengers business. Before we go on with the mission, how are the twins?"

"Wanda's been considering getting a G.E.D.," Clint said, a little excitedly, and Natasha hid her smile again. 

Since Wanda and Pietro had come to stay with them, Clint had, as per usual, taken them in under his wing like they were defenseless kittens, even when they were anything but. After about two months of encouraging and silent trust-building, Wanda and Pietro would come to him with whatever they needed, whether it be a reassuring pep-talk or encouragement.

Pietro had come out enough from his shell to become a little sassy bastard, zigging around the tower like a little speedster. The only one fast enough to spar with him was Bucky, and Bucky really enjoyed putting him in his place. He was eating as much as Thor and simultaneously burning as much as two Steves, so he hadn't gained enough weight since he came to the tower, in Clint's opinion. 

Wanda was a whole other story. She talked to Bruce a lot, and enjoyed being in his lab more than Tony's. Said it felt better for her energies. Bruce had posed the theory that it had to do with her powers being chaos-based, and a calm environment would be soothing if she didn't want to use them. Tony had installed a fountain on Wanda and Pietro's floor to make calming white-noise, and that's usually where she'd sleep, when she felt like it. At least she'd responded to Clint shoving food down their throats like he wanted her too, up to a healthier weight and happy with it.

The twins were very affectionate, but mostly just with each other. Occasionally, Clint was given tokens of affection, a flower Pietro had found when he'd ran out to the country, or a squeeze of a shoulder from Wanda. Pietro would hug Emma whenever she asked him to, but Wanda refrained. However, she had indeed expressed her interest in getting a G.E.D. and getting some sort of college-experience, which Clint was a traditionally proud-dad about. In Natasha's opinion, she'd been watching too many college-movies with Emma, but whatever motivated her was good. 

"Is that so?" Coulson hummed. "How nice. What about Pietro?"

"He looks at what Emma does when she's studying now, tosses his hands in the air, and curses in Sokovian. I don't think he's quite ready yet," Natasha said. 

"We'll get him there, probably," Clint said with a firm nod. 

"You had a mission for us?" she asked, and Coulson nodded, laying the file on the table between them.

"Level three, only, actually," Coulson stated. When he saw the looks on their faces, he shrugged. "You said it yourself, you haven't been out in a while. How does a few days in Bermuda sound?"

"Toasty, in comparison to New York," Clint said with a wiggle of his eyebrows, and opened the file between them. "Undercover?"

"Yes. Mobleader and her partner," he said, looking over to Natasha. "You know the ropes of an organized crime-ring very well, and we're expecting you to rely on that knowledge."

"Of course. Where am I a mobleader?" she asked. "The deep deep south? California? Canada? New Jersey?"

"That what we're thinkin'?" Clint drawled in a terrible attempt at a New Jersey accent. Coulson smacked his lips together, and Natasha scoffed at him.

"We were thinking Russia."

"C'mon! It wasn't that bad," Clint exclaimed.

"You sound like what Steve would sound like if he could get sloppy-drunk and stupid-high at the same time," Natasha told him in no uncertain words, and Clint's jaw dropped in offense. 

"I so don't!"

"At least if we're Russian mobsters, we can talk without anyone knowing what we're saying. What are we doing in Bermuda?" Natasha asked, skimming over the details of their cover. Not newbies in the business, but not veterans either, with a fair amount of cash to spend. 

"Hamilton Princess & Beach Club is opening Bermuda's first casino. The wealthy British mobster who pushed for the casino to be added is called Angus Russell, and is the one inviting his mobster friends to celebrate. He's got his fingers in pretty much every pie; drug-smuggling, hits, large-scale robberies, child trafficking, pretty much enough to land him every life-sentence, if only someone could catch him. He's got contacts from all over the globe who offer him protection and help him stay under the radar. We need you to get concrete evidence on him, get into his inner circle." 

"And how far into that circle would I have to go?" Natasha asked a little carefully. She'd been working with Shield for a very long time, and they rarely asked her to use her hard-earned seduction skills. If this Angus Russell was as high up as Coulson suggested, however, she was sure Shield would want to pull out all the stops to catch him. 

However, Coulson frowned at her. 

"That really depends on how paranoid he is about sharing his business with his friends. Currently, I don't think that we'll ask that of you, but this mission will require that you adapt. He seems to be too occupied with his other business to go to bed with anyone. We've had ears out for him for about six months now, and he doesn't seem to have had any partners."

"How are we getting in when we're fake mobsters, if he's only inviting his mobster friends?" Clint questioned. 

"Well, actually, remember Inferno? The man you rescued Emma from almost two years ago now?" Coulson asked mildly. "He and Russell are mobster friends?" Natasha said skeptically, trying to remember the file they'd had on him before they went in to grab him and found Emma in the process. "Inferno wasn't that well-connected, was he?"

"No, but they've met during their business-dealings, and he was contacted with an invitation when the casino was finished. We intercepted it, and planned to decline on his part, and instead ask him to graciously accept Valentina Ivanovna Dorokhova, and her trusty partner Dmitri Mikhailovich Volotskoi instead. Russell agreed to do so, but we'd already created the identities before we sent it off, since he'd probably look you up."

"Ah. Where did we meet?" Clint asked, reading through the file. 

"Valentina and Inferno met in Chicago when he had his seat there. There aren't any of his henchmen in Bermuda, so you should be in the clear without having to change up too much of your appearance, unless you feel like it'd be needed?"

"Some contouring on my part and I'm good, but Clint should get a haircut," Natasha said casually. 

"Yes, please pay for my haircut," Clint smiled innocently, and Coulson huffed. 

"We'll give Clint a dye-job and a haircut, and trust the magic of makeup on Natasha's part then. The party doesn't start until Wednesday, so you have four days to study the file and come back to me with any issues."

"I have one," Natasha piped up, looking up from the file. 

"Yes, Agent Romanoff?" 

"Mobsters only trust each other as far as they can throw each other. They're gonna check us for wires," she pointed out. "We won't be able to get anything concrete if we don't have wires, of a sort."

"We have a solution to that," Coulson nodded. Now his eyes went to Clint. "I've been talking to the tech department, and they think they can add a recording-device to your hearing-aids without compromising their original function."

"While that's cool and smart and all, I'm actually not allowed to hand over my hearing-aids to anyone who isn't Tony," Clint said with a shrug. "And honestly, I don't want to step out of his good graces by handing his tech over to SHIELD. I'll ask him about getting a pair with recorders for me, though. That way everyone gets what they want."

"That works too, as long as they don't transmit anything," Coulson acknowledged, very familiar with Stark and his paranoia concerning his tech in SHIELD's hands. "Only record. We don't want them to pick up any transmissions. Got that?"

"Yes, Sir," Clint agreed, unconsciously touching his right hearing-aid.

"Good. We'll meet up in two days to go over building plans, possible extraction points, and give you time to try out your covers. Any issues, we'll take them then. Agreed?" Coulson asked. 

"Da," Natasha agreed. 

\---


	2. Color-Competitions And Cat Kisses

 

Vision turned out to be quite the explorer. Silent, able to change his density: he was best equipped to investigate every corner of the tower in a day. Lucky was a little suspicious of him, but once Clint had taught Vision where Lucky liked to be scratched, the dog had no troubles with him. 

Bucky watched him out of the corner of his eye constantly, and Tony had trouble with keeping his hands off Vision for a full four hours after his 'birth', leading to Emma explaining personal space to Vision and telling him that he had all the right in the world to tell Tony off if he didn't want to be poked all the time. 

"I need to collect data for sensory input," Vision replied, and Emma blinked. They were in the gym, currently, Emma because Bucky and Steve were sparring and she liked to watch, and Vision because she'd managed to catch the android as it was floating through the floor.

"What do you mean?"

"I need to assess force that can be applied, and what touch I can reciprocate."

"As in, you gotta learn to know. Huh. Why'd they make you like that?"

"Ultron had it programmed into him. Sir believed it was one of the sources of his malfunction," Jarvis relayed from above them. Emma hummed. 

"So, Vision is, just like Tony said, in all senses but body a baby?"

"Essentially, Miss Emma."

"I don't agree," Vision said, expression changing slightly, somewhere between befuddled and vexed.

"Already rebelling! Good for you," Emma said, patting his shoulder without really thinking. Immediately, Vision returned the gesture, patting her shoulder. Emma grinned. "Attagirl. Or- boy? I don't know. You're a robot. What do you identify as? You don't even have genitals. Do you? Ah, I don't wanna think about Tony making a robot dick!" 

There was the sound of metal connecting with soft tissue, and Emma looked up at the two on the sparring mats. Bucky was grinning, and Steve was wheezing. He was probably the soft tissue the metal hand had connected with, and while Steve was on his ass on the floor, Bucky was almost crouched over in silent laughter, while Steve turned an alarming shade of red.

"I am an android," Vision replied slowly, eyebrow-ridge furrowing a little. "I have not been assigned a gender."

"Oh. Well, do you want one?" she asked, a little frown on her face.

"I... Do not know," Vision acknowledged. 

"Well then, we'll list you as unidentified until you figure it out. That's cool too. Take your time," Emma said with a reassuring nod. Vision nodded back, now looking more determined. "Read some books about gender and stuff. That's what Steve did to figure out it was cool to be gay nowadays. Also I'm pretty sure Tony drunkenly kissed Rhodey and nobody really reacted. You'll meet Rhodey soon, you'll like him. Very non-nonsense. Hey, are you two alright over there?" she then called over. Bucky had collapsed back on his ass too now, head tossed back and grinning. 

"It's funny because I'm damn sure Stark's made a metal dick at point," he grinned wolfishly, and Emma smiled back in response, not really knowing why but very happy that she'd managed to make Bucky smile like that. 

"We're fine," Steve wheezed.

Turns out Steve had, with his good hearing, heard Emma say 'I don't wanna think about Tony making a robot dick', been thoroughly distracted by that image, and Bucky had managed to land a blow with the left hand in Steve's stomach at the same time. 

Thankfully, neither had been grievously injured, but Steve couldn't stop blushing, and Bucky was still very amused at Steve being distracted enough by the image of his husband with a robot dick to get hit hard enough to lose his breath.

"Hey, this is a good learning opportunity for you, my electrical bud," Emma said, getting to her feet, and making her way over to the two collapsed super-soldiers. When Vision didn't move, she looked back. "That's you."

"Oh." Vision walked up to the sparring mats behind her. 

"Goodie. Now, Bucky's gonna punch you. There are playful punches and there are punches that you use to hurt someone. This," she said, and punched Vision very gently in the shoulder, "is a playful punch. Buck?"

Bucky looked skeptical, but stood up again, and gave Vision a reasonably hard punch in the pec. The metal didn't dent, but Vision's whole body moved with the blow. The green eyes flashed, and the robot made a 'hmm' noise.

"That was weird," Bucky said, squinting at Vision. "I don't like him."

"We're _way_ ambiguous on if Vision's a dude," Emma relayed, and Bucky huffed. 

"Alright. I don't like them," he corrected.

"Attaboy," Emma praised, and looked over at Steve, still on the mats. "You okay, Cap?"

"I'm fine. Just in a little pain. I wasn't ready."

"For the visual of Tony, or-" Bucky's sentence was cut short as Steve grabbed his ankle and pulled him down to the floor, with Bucky cackling again. 

The door opened, and Clint's head popped in. 

"There you are, kiddo. Wanna go shoot with me? Kate made some new arrows she wants to try, and she also brought several whole canned chickens," he said, his eyebrows jumping up and down. "Have I caught your interest?" 

"I'm as horrified as I am curious," Emma declared, and took off for the door. 

"Hey, Vision, your dad's looking for you," Clint said when he'd wrapped an arm around Emma's shoulders.

"I have no father."

"It was a joke, but alright. Tony is looking for you. Maybe go to the workshop before he tries to make a Vision-sized magnet."

"Could he really do that?" Emma questioned. 

"I dunno. It's Tony. He probably could, if you give him enough time," Clint shrugged as Vision silently slipped through the floor. "Holy hell. Does he do that all the time?"

"Vision's gender is as of yet undecided, dad," Emma said decisively as they made their way over to the elevator. 

"Oh. Yeah okay," he said with a shrug. "C'mon, let's not keep Katie-Kate waiting."

Emma laughed, and stepped out with him. 

"How was work?" she asked when Clint pressed a kiss to the top of her head. 

"Good. We got a mission, though, so we're leaving in four days," he said seriously. At Emma's worried face, he held his hand up. "Don't worry, it's just a little undercover work to get our feet wet again after our relax-period. It's not gonna be that dangerous. We'll call whenever we have the chance."

"Well, alright. Just promise me you'll be careful, okay?" Emma asked, eyes wide. "Don't want to become an orphan and be sent off again." 

Clint stopped walking towards the elevator immediately, gripping Emma's shoulders gently and trying to hold her gaze.

"Hey, look at me," he said softly when Emma crossed her arms over her chest defensively. When he nudged her chin, she looked up at him a little defiantly, swallowing hard. "Honey, we've signed like a _billion_ legal documents to make sure you stay in the Avengers, no matter what happens to us. Okay? Even if something happens, which it _won't_ , you are not leaving this tower until you say so. Are we clear on that?"

Emma looked at him in silence for a little while, before she swallowed hard again, and nodded. 

"Yeah dad," she said softly, and Clint pulled her into a hug, burying his nose in her hair. 

"Matt's made sure that we've made a very long list of all the people who we know would make better guardians than Anne, and could take care of you, if something happened to us. You are never going back to her, Emma. I promise," Clint said fiercely, and he felt Emma nod against his chest. 

When she pulled back from the hug, her eyes were a little red-rimmed, and Clint kissed the top of her head. 

"Now let's go see what sort of fuckery Kate is up to," he murmured, and that got his girl to giggle a little, which he saw as a win. He smiled at her, and got a smile back. When he ruffled her hair, he got a whiny little 'daaad' back, which pleased him to no end as Emma shoved him into the elevator, not entirely gently.

\---

Hank Pym showed up in a flurry an hour or two after lunch, eyes just as wide and amazed as Tony's, and Emma stuck around the workshop as more and more scientists dropped in, some in Stark-Labs coats and one dude who was apparently named Reed Richards, and could twist his body like a piece of silly putty. 

When Emma said those words out loud in front of Tony, the genius burst out laughing and called Reed Mr. Silly Putty until he took his notes and left, muttering under his breath angrily. Finally, it was only Helen Cho, Hank Pym, Tony, Emma, and Vision left in the room. 

"Well, his deduction skills are good, the visual sensors are good, he's able to catch voice-cues... I mean, he's beautiful," said Hank, rubbing his head with a dazed look on his face. 

"Hey," Emma said sharply from where she was perched on Tony's desk chair. All adults looked up at her in confusion. "Vision hasn't decided their gender yet." 

"We made him," Hank pointed out, eyebrows furrowing."Why would he have to determine his own gender?" 

"Oh geeze," Tony said to nobody in particular, but Dr. Cho looked up from where she was examining the synthetic material making up Vision's skin and their hand. 

"Well, _dipshit_ ," Emma began, hopping off the chair, and Tony put his hands on her shoulders. 

"Hey, Emma, hey, remember _educational_ moments? This is one of them. I need his brain, which means I can't let you beat him up," he said very quickly, smiling down at her. "Defend Vision's choice as much as you want, you know I'm all here for it, but educational moments. Okay? Please?"

Pym was now looking entirely confused and mildly terrified. Dr. Cho flipped Vision's hand over, pressing with the tip of a pen against specific spots on their palm and noting the responses she got in a little notebook next to her. 

"Fine," Emma pouted. "Alright, well. Think of it like this, Pym: babies don't know gender roles, yeah?" When Pym just gave her a baffled look, she raised her eyebrows at him, making a gesture with her hand like she was expecting a response. Hank sputtered into motion. 

"Uhm-uh, no, yeah, I guess they don't," he stuttered. Tony held his thumbs up and went back to examining Vision's body responses with Dr. Cho.

"Right, because they don't understand them. Because they're babies. What you guys made isn't a baby. Vision is intelligent enough to understand basic human contact and, like, how society is built, and gender identities. Which means they can make their own informed decision what they identify as before you push anything onto them," Emma explained patiently. "It wouldn't be fair to just pin 'dude' on them and then, since they don't know anything else than being called 'dude', assume that that's what they identify as. That'd be like someone pinning me for a guy and telling me I'm a guy when I feel like a girl. You with me here?"

Hank opened his mouth, and Emma held a hand up. 

"I need you to think that through for a while. Process. Don't say anything stupid. I'm not allowed to punch you, but that doesn't mean I won't," she said. When Hank pressed his lips together, she grabbed his hand and tugged him with her surprising strength over to the chair and sat him down. "There. Two minutes of silence. Go."

When she turned back around, Dr. Cho was smiling at her. 

"What?" she asked. 

"Nothing. I just... Didn't believe the rumors," the doctor replied. 

"What rumors?" Tony asked as he picked up a tablet. "Flex for me, Vis."

"That you're the perfect combo of Hawkeye and Black Widow. That was very Clint and simultaneously very Natasha of you," she explained. Emma beamed as Vision flexed their artificial muscles. 

"Nice touch by Janet, I'll admit," Tony said distantly as he looked Vision up and down. "Very nice."

"She really hit it out of the park with the design," Dr. Cho agreed. "Vision? What color is this?" She held up a color swatch that looked red to Emma. 

"It's wine-red," she said out loud before hopping onto Tony's workbench instead, now that Hank was terrified in her chair. 

"I believe it's the more elusive mahogany-red," Vision said in their now smooth and melodious voice. Emma quite liked that voice. 

"One for Vision," said Dr. Cho, smiling broadly. "Tony, are you running the tests Bruce sent?"

"Yeah, yeah, don't nag me," Tony said distantly, still not taking his eyes off his tablet.

"Do another one," Emma demanded. Dr. Cho fiddled with her little color swatches, and held another one up. This one was bright blue.

"Cobalt blue?" Emma wagered. 

"Actually, that would be lapis," Vision said, and Dr. Cho made a 'what can you do' face at Emma. 

"Oh c'mon," she groaned. "How's that even possible?"

"I have a register over the full spectrum of color visible to the human eye," Vision relayed a little sheepishly.

"Well, then, that's cheating!" Emma proclaimed. "I win by proxy. Hah!"

"Play nice," Tony said, nudging her shoulder. "New kid's not going anywhere, you'll be able to bully Vision later about your superior skills at color-naming." 

Hank cleared his throat, and Emma gazed over royally. 

"Yes, Hank?" she said sweetly. 

"Can I talk now?" he questioned awkwardly. 

"Depends. Gonna stay something ignorant?"

"No?"

"Fine. Let's hear it."

"What do I call Vision if I can't say he? It? That feels rude," he questioned. 

"They or them. At least until Vision's figured it out," Emma said, turning to look at the android. Vision blinked back at her. "You can get your hands on literature and a bunch of websites where people talk about their gender identities, yeah?"

"I am currently reading a 'blog' by a transgender woman named Samantha, sharing her life-experiences," Vision relayed, and Emma nodded approvingly. 

"Oh, hey, Jarvis, put a blocker on social media, we don't need Vision on Twitter or Facebook or something until we've taught them to use their thumbs," Tony said hurriedly, tapping on his tablet. 

"I know how to use my thumbs," Vision said, a little offended as they wiggled their thumbs at Tony. 

"It's an expression, he knows you can use your thumbs," Emma explained, and Vision made an 'oh' sound of recognition.

"Of course, Sir," Jarvis agreed. 

"Yeah, fair enough," Hank said, and crossed his arms over his chest. He still hadn't made a move to get up. Tony turned his eyes on his fellow scientist, and grinned, before turning to Emma. 

"Hey, don't you have somewhere to be, Little Miss Disappear?" Tony said pointedly. 

"Like where?" Emma questioned. 

"Like upstairs, helping Steve make dinner, or, I don't know, studying for your science test?" Tony challenged. Emma groaned, but slipped off his workbench. 

"Fine. See you at dinner," she called as she made her way out of the room, running her hands over Dummy's servos and You's platform before she was out the door. 

"Scared to get up?" Tony questioned Hank, and Helen grinned at him. Hank stared at Tony for a moment in stoic silence, before he broke down. 

"I just-I don't want her to yell at me, okay? She's sort of scary," he said softly, with very little dignity, and Tony burst out laughing. 

"Oh, you have no clue. She's got zero patience for bigotry and if she decides she wants to whip you into shape, you're getting into her shape, even if you don't want to."

"Oh, I like her," Helen said with a grin. "She reminds me a lot of her parents."

"You bet. A scary little combination, of course, with Natasha's impatience for bullshit and Clint's sunshine view on life. Very intent on petting every animal she meets," Tony said distantly as he went back to staring at the code that made up the majority of Vision's brain. What Wanda felt was consciousness, was actually the stone on his forehead, which Bruce had put a lot of effort into breaking down to numbers for Tony so he could run simulations. 

Suddenly, Vision blinked rapidly, and shook their head. There was a speed-up in the numbers on Tony's screen.

"Vision? What's happening, buddy?" he asked, and Hank was on his feet again within a second, and Helen had a concerned frown on her face. 

"I don't-" Vision said, closing their eyes and shaking their head in a surprisingly natural-looking way. 

"Jarvis?" Tony hurried out. 

"Vision is being exposed to a virus, Sir," Jarvis said matter-of-factly, and Hank tapped on the computers and Tony on his tablet, and Helen pushed Vision into the chair Hank had just vacated, before snatching the tablet out of Tony's hands and taking over. Tony, in turn, swished his hand through the air, and the keyboard underneath Hank's fingers flew over to him instead. 

"I can't believe we didn't give him a proper immune-system!" Hank exclaimed as Helen found the virus and dispatched it. Vision's eyes opened again, and their eyebrows furrowed in confusion. 

"You said that Vision being any more human-like would creep you out, if I may remind you," Helen hissed, skimming through Tony's open tabs without difficulty to get back to Vision's brainwaves. They were going back to normal. 

"Jarvis, cut Vis off from the internet fully, before they catch another cold," Tony muttered, watching the output that had come out as Vision tried to fight the virus off.

"Of course, Sir."

"I was reading," Vision complained, sounding remarkably whiny, and Tony thought back to what Wanda said, about the android feeling too real. Emma's remarks about how Vision was an intelligent life form, of a sort. Too smart to be Dummy or You, too solid to be Jarvis. They'd given Vision the opportunity to learn and unlearn, like humans do, and Helen had insisted that if they wanted a human android, the android would need to be able to sleep. Making sure Vision would be able to dream was a little too enthusiastic, in Bruce's opinion, but they'd added it to the list of possible modifications. They hadn't really been expecting Vision's behavior to be so influenced by the stone on his forehead, however.

"I'm sorry, Vis. We just want to keep you safe, for now," Tony hurried to soothe. Helen nudged their head a little to the left, and plugged in a cord into their neck. Vision looked a little uncomfortable, but Hank and Helen weren't paying attention. 

Tony was father to a toddler. He knew cranky moods, and he knew that Vision had been awoken rather rudely and abruptly, instead of like waking up from a particularly restful sleep, like they'd originally planned for the android's boot-up. More fitting that they were born too early and with getting manhandled the moment they were fresh out of the cradle, actually, now that Tony thought about it. A real birth indeed.

"Alright, let's initiate program triple-z, yeah? That'll give us all time to proccess all this new data," Tony suggested, clapping his hands together and rubbing them against each other. Helen rolled her eyes. 

"Triple Z? Really? That's what you're going to call the sleeping mode," Hank said very skeptically. 

"It's wordplay, alright? It's funny. Steve laughed when I told him," he pouted. "To initiate the program, just go lay down, close your eyes, do some circulatory system rotations until you start to fade to black. Got it?"

Vision nodded, and Helen unplugged them reluctantly. The android went over to the couch, sat down, and lay like a plank for a moment, eyes closed, before their body went a little more limp and relaxed.

"Wham bam! Baby's put down for a nap. Out like a light. It's so much easier when they do it themselves," Tony sighed. "Speaking of, where's my Petey, Jarvis?"

"Currently with Miss Emma and Captain Rogers in the kitchen, making cupcakes, Sir," Jarvis said, sounding mildly amused. Tony grinned happily, thinking of his little family upstairs. Then he glanced over at Vision, their facial features relaxed like they'd been in the cradle. 

Maybe it was time for expansion?

\---

"What is this I'm hearing about Tony and Bruce making a _person_?" Darcy asked incredulously as she stepped into their apartment. She blinked as she stopped about a foot from the elevator.

The bed, which was previously up against the left wall, was now on the other side of the huge room, on the right wall, and the bookshelf was instead against this wall, the couch and the loveseat moved accordingly. The tv was on another wall, the pillows aligned neatly on the couch, the blanket tossed over the back of the loveseat. The sheets were changed, and it looked like the bathroom toiletries had been cleaned out too, from the full garbage can in the corner. 

The one responsible himself, was sitting on the floor in the middle of the room, a bun on top of his head to keep the bangs out of his face, and with his legs crossed. He was only wearing boxer-shorts and a black tank-top. His boxers were a ridiculously bright turquoise, a pair Emma had undoubtedly gotten for him, and speaking of Emma, her cat was in his lap. 

"They made a person. Emma named them Vision," Bucky replied, not looking up at her. Instead, he kept petting Victoria, the large white cat who was ridiculously stupid and prissy. Only Bucky, Natasha, and Emma were allowed to pet her, along with possibly Clint, if he was careful. She shed on everything, and was _absolutely_ adorable. Currently, she was purring like a little chainsaw in Bucky's lap.

"Them? _Plural_?" Darcy questioned in disbelief. Tony making many human-looking robots was not good for her sanity and having to explain it to the press. As their current PR-advisor and the only one who managed to handle the Avengers gracefully, the amount of shit she'd have to deal with would be enormous if he made plural, many fucking robots. 

"Singular." Well, that made her feel better. 

"Oh. Have you been out in polite company with no pants today? Rauncy," she added, stepping further into the room and tossing her tablet on the couch. She stepped out of her sensible heels and let her hair out of it's clip, feeling like she was shedding skin like a snake.

Bucky huffed out a laugh at her, and when they met eyes, she saw a bit of a darkness in there that suggested that while he might be walking and talking alright today, it wasn't a _good_ day.

"No. Got sweaty moving things around."

"Yeah. Speaking of, twitchy day?" she asked gently, and Bucky shrugged. 

"Not really. Just thought this was, tactically-speaking, smarter than the previous arrangement. I'll move it back if you want?" he said, the upturn of his voice at the end of the sentence indicating a question, and Darcy blinked. 

"Nah, it's fine. Just surprised me a little, is all. What've you been up to today, except moved all of our furniture around?"

"Sparred with Steve. Watched Bishop and Barton shoot a little. Went for a run with Sam and Nat. What sort of assholes did you have to deal with at work today?" 

Darcy laughed, and got a smile back for her troubles. Not a good day, but not a bad day either. She could handle that. 

"There's this girl who keeps making snide comments about Bruce and the Hulk, and I'm ready to sock her in the jaw, one-two," she grunted, demonstrating two swings in the air as she walked on bare feet towards him. 

"Punch her," he agreed, and she grinned. 

"No, don't encourage me. I'll accidentally do it, and then I'll get fired, and then we'll have no income anymore," she pointed out. 

"So? We live in the Avengers tower. We don't pay for nothin' at all," he shot back. Darcy rubbed the back of her neck, trying to stretch the tendons out so they'd stop aching. 

"Yeah, and my ma raised me to feel guilty for mooching off of other people,"

"Is it really moochin' if I'm not allowed to legally leave the premises?" Bucky asked, getting batted at by Victoria in his lap.

"You are so allowed to leave the premises, don't try that with me," she huffed out a laugh. 

Immediately, to appease his furry friend's demand, Bucky cooed at Victoria in Russian, his voice a little rumbly, but sounding loving and cherishing, and Darcy instinctively felt goosebumps all over her body. _God_ , could this man do things to her no other could. 

"Doting cat-dad Bucky. Cute," she smiled, and Bucky picked Victoria up like one would lift a baby, getting bumped in the face by her wet little pink nose.

"Want me to talk you up the same, babe?" he asked, smirking a little at her.

"Pssh. No. Yes. No?" Darcy said, and Bucky chuckled, putting Victoria back down, getting up, and moving over to envelop Darcy in a hug, sweeping her hair over her shoulder and dropping a kiss on her forehead.

His cooing continued, but this time, instead of the cat, he was smoothing his hand down her back and cupping her face, dropping kisses a little bit of anywhere close by. He turned her around so that Darcy's back was against his chest, and kept crooning in surprisingly soothing Russian, and Darcy just melted against him.

"Not fair," she mumbled when he dropped a kiss on her exposed neck.

"No?" he murmured into the skin right behind her ear, making her shiver. 

"Not at all," she sighed back, feeling his hand slip around her side and cupping her hip. "Oh, dude, there is no way I'm getting out of this skirt without help."

"I'm helpful," Bucky reassured her. 

"Oh really?" she grinned at him, their eyes meeting over her shoulder. He stroked a thumb over her jawline with the metal hand, the light touch making her shiver again. 

"What, you think I can't be helpful? I'll show you helpful," he smirked at her, all cocky, and Darcy laughed, bringing his lips to hers.

"Alright soldier boy, be helpful," she snickered, and Bucky spun her around, tossing her over his shoulder. "Hey, careful with the goods!"

"I'm always careful," he reassured her, taking a giggling Darcy over to their newly-changed bed.

\---

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As for how I'm writing Vision, I'm literally floundering in the dark. I've read some short comics with him, but one was majorly screwed up with him having a wife and kids that looked like him and got murdered or something, so I really don't know what I'm doing. I'm mostly playing around with the robot, please be patient with me!  
> Also, thank you so much for being so many of you who still want to read things from this universe! Makes me super happy!


	3. Late Night Tests And Crashes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry about the delay, I've watched civil war for the first time and then infinity war in like... the span of three days. So I'm a little ruined, and it's been like eating wet paper towels, trying to write (weird metaphor but like??? I can't think of a better way to describe it). Here's a late chapter anyways!!  
> Thank you so much for your amazing support, you're the best!!!  
> Enjoy! <3

 

Bruce flew back in later that night, on a Stark-jet, and arrived in the middle of the night. Vision had no real bed, and Tony felt sort of weird offering them a guest-room, so he just stayed with them in the workshop, distantly keeping an eye on the parental controls for Vision's internet connection as he worked on the new Starkphone and Starktab because Pepper had made Jarvis play one of his most loathed songs very loudly until he did what she'd asked him to. _Devious_ woman.

At one am, the doors opened, and Emma, wearing headphones and holding her stuffed giraffe, entered the room. She crawled up on the couch, her dog trotting after her, and Tony didn't even really question it. Barnes' insomnia wasn't as severe anymore, probably from regular serotonin-bombs, courtesy of one Darcy Lewis, but Emma's was still a real beast. 

Since coming back from her grandmother's place, it had only gotten worse. She kept thinking she'd wake up in her grandmother's house again. This was probably one of the nights where Clint and Natasha had insisted she should at least _try_ sleeping in her own bed.

"Hey Ariel. How're you doing?" Tony asked. Emma yawned, and pulled an earbud out, settling on the couch so that she could hug her giraffe, lean against the back of the couch, and have Lucky's head in her lap simultaneously. 

"'M fine. 'S Bruce back yet?" she asked. Vision began petting Lucky carefully, and the dog's tail wagged a little. 

"Landing on the roof as we speak," he told them both. Emma nodded and Vision followed her lead. 

"Nice." There was a dinging noise, and Emma held her phone up, smiling at it briefly. Tony tossed her a look over his shoulder.

"What's _Damian_ doing up so late?" he teased as he turned back to his screens again, tossing a screwdriver onto the tabletop.

"Oh, poor Peter whenever he gets a significant other, they better be well prepared to handle the lot of you," Emma tossed back without hesitancy, and Tony grinned. 

"He couldn't sleep either?"

"Nah, he's doing homework late, is all," Emma sighed. "He always procrastinates to the last minute and doesn't like actually study and he still gets straight A's! I wish I could do that."

"Well, we don't all work the same. Wanna know something?" he asked, spinning around in his chair again to look at her. Emma nodded. "I technically flunked third grade."

"You didn't! You're lying," Emma accused, and he shook his head. 

"Nope. I didn't do anything the teachers told me to, I was building robots in class and being a general disturbance, along with ignoring learning how to write in cursive and not doing my reading. When they said I wasn't passing, my dad forced them to move me up two grades, and yeah, my grades went up, but I also got some serious beat-downs because I was a skinny, loudmouthed eight-year-old in a class of ten-year-olds. I remember Bruce telling me he only realized that he wasn't an idiot when he got a teacher that recognized that he was an auditive learner, and before that, his grades weren't amazing either."

"What's that mean?" Emma asked. "Auditive."

"That he learns better when he's hearing someone saying something. Jarvis, you read him a lot of audio books, don't you?"

"I do, Sir," Jarvis agreed. 

"The lesson to take away from this story? Grades don't say shit about how smart you are," Tony told her very seriously. "Just because you don't think you're getting amazing grades doesn't mean you're not smart. You're crazy smart. You're gonna go far, kid."

"'Cos I've got a rich uncle?" Emma grinned. 

"No, because you've got all the firepower you need right up there," Tony smirked, tapping his head. 

The doors to the lab slid apart again, and Lucky bolted off the couch to say hello to Bruce, who laughed and dropped his over-the-shoulder bag on the floor. 

"Hi Lucky," he laughed tiredly, petting the happy golden retriever. He looked up at Vision, and exhaled. "Wow. Hi again. How are your neurological pathways developing?"

"I am absorbing a lot of knowledge, and have had to initiate several triple-Z protocols to categorize it and organize it," Vision said very seriously. Bruce looked baffled.

"Just say take a nap," Tony assured Vision, before turning to Bruce. "Well, what do you think?"

"I like the added cape," Bruce said. "Could you stand up for me, buddy?" 

Vision did as they were told, and Bruce did some bending of joints, feeling of backmuscles, and stared in bafflement as Vision held a very amused Emma above their head.

"Wow. We outdid ourselves with this one," Bruce said after about an hour of smaller tests, when Emma had been put back down on the couch again, and Vision was sitting with her. "How did the initiation protocols go? What are you missing?"

"I have been shown both a playful punch, and a real punch, and have also documented several body positions and facial expressions."

"How about a hug?" Emma asked. "That's like, one of the most important things ever."

"To you, yeah," Bruce laughed. 

"I have not yet documented a hug," Vision agreed, and Emma lit up. Immediately, she embraced Vision in a hug, squishing her face against their chest. 

"Now you wrap your arms around me and squeeze back," Emma said. Vision did as told, wrapping their arms around the girl, and blinking down at her head.

"Oh," they stated in slight confusion. "Is this a way of demonstrating affection?"

"You bet, buddy," Emma agreed, leaning back to look up at them with a beaming smile. "However, not to people you've just met, and especially not a few people in this tower. Gotta respect boundaries, my friend."

"And who are these people?" Vision questioned. 

"Wanda, probably. Bucky, without a doubt. Usually, I'd go with Tony, but Tony loves you, so he's not on that list for once," Emma listed on her fingers, with Vision's arms still wrapped around her. "Sam, definitely, he's gonna be freaked out but then accept you but still be wary of you, and mom doesn't trust you and Pietro doesn't like you, and Bruce could use all the hugs he can get, so you're greenlighted there-"

"Emma," Bruce interrupted with a little awkward laugh. "Let Vision breathe for a second." 

"What? We have very weird family dynamics and I'm trying to introduce them gently. This is me being very gentle. Pietro and Wanda got the gentle headstart, and Darcy and Jane, why shouldn't Vision get it?"

"I guess you're right. How's the code and protocols?" Bruce asked Tony, who waved a hand, and the status reports appeared on the screen. 

"Thought we'd check out Vision's... Other abilities now that you're here," Tony said, giving Bruce a side-eye, and Bruce's eyes widened a little behind his glasses. 

"Oh. Um, yeah. Sure. C'mon Vision, we're gonna head to a training room," Bruce agreed, and Vision let go of Emma. 

"Wait what? Why do you need a training room?" Emma asked curiously, now pulling her headphones out of her ears and whistling for Lucky as the two men and the android moved out of the room. She followed them into the elevator, wrapping herself around Bruce. "I'm glad you're home."

"You'll see, I guess. And me too," Bruce sighed, tilting his head every-which way to stretch his neck-muscles out. Tony patted him on the back. 

"Yes, dear god, please tell me you brought a spider-book for Peter," he said a little desperately. The other scientist laughed, and rubbed his eyes underneath his glasses.

"Yes, yes, I did. Don't worry. It's in my luggage. I met Natasha in the common room, she told me she'd take it to my floor,"

"Why's mom awake?" Emma asked incredulously.

"Probably the same reason as you, birdie," Bruce pointed out, squeezing her shoulder once before letting go. Emma stepped back from him and frowned. 

"Well what a dilemma. Jay, can you drop Lucky off on the common floor for me?" she asked the ceiling. 

"A wise choice, Miss Emma," Jarvis agreed. "I will see to it that he gets there." 

"Thanks Jarvis. You're the best," Emma smiled at the ceiling, before crouching down in front of Lucky very seriously. "Lucky. Mom's upset. I need you to use your amazingness and general fluffiness to make her feel better. Can you do that for me?" 

Lucky licked her in the face. 

"I'm glad we agree. Ugh, gross, you smell like a foot. I love you anyway, yes, yes, argh!" Emma laughed as Lucky tipped her over on her butt, still licking her in the face. The elevator slowed to a stop by the training rooms, and Emma was helped to her feet by Tony, before they exited the elevator. Lucky remained inside. "Good boy! Good boy."

"Honestly, I'm considering the fact that Lucky is a mutant dog," Tony said with his eyebrows furrowed when they walked down a corridor, passing the normal training rooms. "Like Peter and Wanda and Pietro, but a dog version. Is that possible? It doesn't feel impossible. Never know with the mutant powers. Maybe the mutant dogs'd just rule the world with their cuteness. Isn't that an episode from one of those shows you watch?"

"That was cats, from Futurama. But Auntie Katie says Lucky's just really smart," Emma said, waving him off as she skipped into the training room, immediately going for the still rings. "Just 'cause he's smart doesn't make him a mutant. That'd be like asking you if you were a mutant just 'cause you're smart."

"I'm smart because I have good genes and started inventing early," Tony shrugged, turning to a wall-panel. He pressed a few buttons, and the sparring mats flipped themselves over, showing unforgiving metal, and indestructable force-field shields sizzled between a couple of pins before turning entirely clear. The only clue that they were there was the occasional wiggle of the air, like when it was blaringly hot outside and the asphalt looked like it was being cooked. 

"Wow!" Emma gaped from where she was standing in the still-rings. "That's so cool!" Tony grinned at her. 

"Yes, tiny birdspider, I know! I knew you'd appreciate this particular stroke of genius of mine, kiddo. This is the sort of appreciation I deserve."

"Actually, studies show that your "smartness", if you will, comes from your mom. Technically, you can't pin your genius on Howard," Bruce said, with the bunny-ears in the appropriate place.

"I did say early practice, not just good genes, and I'll tell you, Howard put me in practice _early_ ," Tony said, looking over at Vision, standing near the center of the room. "Well, Vis, time to show us what you've got. Shift through the field and we'll get started on testing your 'cool shit' protocols."

"Please tell me that's not what you actually named them, Tony," Bruce pleaded, alarmed, and watching as Vision shifted their density to enter the little bubble of light along with Tony. When Vision was safely within the bubble, Tony pulled his phone out of his pocket. 

"What? Why not? It works," he protested, swishing some holoscreens into the air from his phone. 

"We're changing the name as soon as we're done with these tests," Bruce yawned. "I need to sleep, after this. You know how I get when I don't."

"Green?" Tony suggested, poking him in the side. 

"Quit it," Bruce said with an eyeroll, but he did look a little tired, and he kept rubbing his neck distantly. "Vision, run protocols."

Vision began floating in the air, testing a few jabs that had a suspiciously Steve-looking quality to them, before sending out a huge, yellow laser-beam from their forehead directly onto the dome of energy. Emma in the still rings nearly fell from her perch, catching herself with one hand. 

"Whoah!" she exclaimed as Vision continued through a series of different attack-patterns, kicks and blows and shifting density as they went. The energy-shields wavered a little, flickering for just a second when Vision punched the invisible barrier.

"Are you sure the shields are going to hold?" Bruce asked a little nervously.

"I'm sure. Like, eighty percent sure," Tony reassured, looking between his phone, the wallpanel, and Vision in the little dome. "We've done less dramatic tests with greater risks before." Bruce nodded, but he rubbed his hand against his breastbone a little nervously still. 

Vision hit the shield again, giving it two sharp rights, and pulled their shoulders back like they did before they did a forehead-beam, and just in that moment, the shield flickered again.

"Uh-oh," Emma said almost to herself, and Tony let out an incredulous shout as he shoved Bruce out of the way of the laser beam.

"Alright, Bruce?" Tony asked, already hammering away at his phone. The shields stabilized again, turning more shimmery-light blue this time than before. 

"I'm sorry, Dr. Banner," Vision said from their dome. "I was reassured that the dome would hold."

"Oh, god," Bruce said from the floor, eyes wide as he clutched at his chest, getting up on all fours. "Christ, no. No, no no." 

"Bruce?" Tony asked casually, glancing at him from out of the corner of his eye. Bruce hands were shifting between his usual pale pallor to something greener, and Emma stared, wide-eyed. He shook his head, muttering 'no' under his breath, before he collapsed on the floor. "Bruce."

"Get-" Bruce rasped, before hitting his hand against the floor. Instead of doing like a floor normally would, the fake-wood of the training room's floor cracked like an eggshell around Bruce's fist. "-out of here!" The end of his sentence wasn't so much as a breath as a loud growl. 

"Uh-" Emma said intelligently, dropping down on the mat underneath the rings silently. "Tony?" 

"Emma, get out of here," Tony said, his voice surprisingly serious for being Tony as he pressed some buttons on his phone. "I'm not kidding, out!"

As they spoke, the growl in Bruce's throat turned into more of a roar, and there was the sound of fabric tearing as his shoulders broadened with a sickening crack, his whole body expanding and turning greener and greener.

"Holy shit," Emma said in a breathless voice, staring as the Hulk got up on two feet and roared loud enough to make the floor vibrate. Vision shifted out of their safety-dome, throwing their arms back like they were ready to fire their forehead-canon again.

"Vision, no! Hulk isn't a threat!" Tony shouted as he ran for cover behind one of the pillars. The Hulk immediately went on a rampage, yelling 'smash' as he swept punching bags off their hooks, tossing them around like they were hacky-sacks and tore the heads off of sparring dummies. During all of this, Emma just stood in shock, staring. 

"You're calling a suit," Vision pointed out incredulously, floating up into the corner of the training room with their arms crossed like a scolded child who obviously just wanted to test out their new protocols. 

"I'm calling a suit to protect my bones and because he knows Iron Man! Don't shoot him! It just pisses him off even more," Tony said hurriedly, slamming a button on the wall by one of the entrances. "Emma, didn't I tell you to get out of here!"

"Too late for that," she said, mostly to herself, as the Hulk turned back around, and shiny green eyes met hers. The alarm went off, but not the one Emma was used to, the Avengers Assemble alarm. This was something else, something different. 

Hulk-warning, probably. 

"Emma no!" Tony shouted and stepped out from under the cover as the doors to the training room opened, and the current Iron Man suit flew in, obviously with the aim to absorb and protect Tony. Hulk's eyes followed it's trajectory, and turned to look at Tony, all out in the open, without a suit, and without letting anybody attack the Hulk. 

"Oh, hell no," Emma said to herself, before she ran forward and out into the open as well, so that she was no longer in the little alcove with the still rings, and wolf-whistled.

"What are you doing!" Tony hissed, but it was just the distraction he didn't know he needed, because the Iron Man suit flew over Hulk's head as he turned to look at Emma again. She exhaled when she saw Tony jump into the suit, but the Hulk was still looking at her, confused and angry and without a clue as to who she was.

"Hulk!" she shouted, waving her arms. "Hi! Hi big guy! Look at me!" The Hulk roared, and Emma just beamed at him. "Now that I've got your attention, what do you call an acid with an attitude?"

Hulk charged for her, and Emma ran back into the alcove, jumping up in the still rings and swinging out of range with her heart hammering in her chest. 

"A-meano- acid!" she crowed from where she was swinging in the still-rings. The Hulk batted after her, like a cat with a string would, just as Iron Man and Vision appeared in air above the alcove. 

"Hulk, buddy, I'm gonna need to you stay away from the little girl," came Iron Man's slightly flitered voice as Vision tried to float above Hulk and grab Emma without anybody getting hurt. Hulk swatted them out of the sky like they were a particularly annoying fly, sending the android flying into the wall on the other side of the room. 

"Girl play!" he rumbled angrily, and Emma gaped. 

"Wanna play? Okay," she agreed a little breathily. "Catch me if you can."

She'd jumped from still rings many times in her life, usually into someone's waiting, strong arms, but this time, she leaped just so that she'd be able to land on her hands against his shoulder. The force let her jump off his shoulder and onto the other side of him, rolling on the floor to absorb most of the shock.

After that it was a bit of a blur. She jumped against the walls, rolling on the floor to get away from when he tried to grab her like a particularly tricky frog: with both hands and squishing her in the process.

Tony tried to grab her out of the air a couple of times, trying to rescue her and stand in the Hulk's way, but Emma was getting a workout she hadn't had since last time she tried to run away from someone, and wouldn't catch his hand. The adrenaline was pumping through her body, her powers making her otherwise shaky hands steady and helping her calculate her trajectory as she jumped away from yet another ruined wall.

The Hulk howled in frustration, beating his hands against the ground angrily as she dropped down on the floor, waiting for his next move. The door opened, and her mom, dad, and Kate spilled into the room, both Hawkeyes with tranq-arrows loaded and ready to shoot any moment. 

"Hulk!" Natasha shouted, but he'd stopped listening to even Tony's voice after a while, too into the game to care about others. Natasha's voice made his head tilt a little, probably because it sounded like a gunshot in an entirely silent room, full of authority and righteous anger and protectiveness. Emma would've met her eyes to reassure her that she was okay, but you don't look away from your opponent when you're mid-fight. Emma's been shot on several occasions for doing that.

"They're gonna shoot you," she told the Hulk in a low voice, looking for any recognition on his features as he breathed heavily. "You can just stop now. Let Bruce take over. You don't have to get hurt. Nobody does."

"Emma, get away from him, we've got this!" came Clint's holler, but Emma just stared into the green of Hulk's eyes, waiting. 

And then he roared again. Emma turned tail like a rat, scurrying across the whole training room like they were playing cat and mouse, and that was probably what he thought, that this was a game, and not life and death. That was cool. Emma could work with that. Bruce Banner, one of her favorite uncles, was still in there, still underneath all that, and she could do this if it meant he could go back to being him without anybody hurting him or tranquing him.

No matter how big steps she took, she was still a pretty tiny person, with tiny legs in comparison to the Hulk. She felt him coming up closer behind her, and realized it was a lost battle, trying to run away from him, so instead she turned around, skidding on the ground and slamming her elbows straight into the fake wood to slow her acceleration and make him run right over her and away. Emma hadn't really thought he would figure her scheme out, hadn't attributed him that brain-power, but that was stupid, just stupid, underestimating someone like that. When she thought he would just barrel past her, he instead used all of the force he'd been running with to pin her to the floor. 

Emma sucked in a gasp of air at the pain of huge hands impacting with her shoulders, and she definitely felt the whole floor scrape up underneath them, the loud noise like a whole forest of trees falling. She looked up into the Hulk's green eyes, and decided that she could see the flicker of blue in his eyes. Alright. Close, then. Just needed something to make him snap out of it.

Without hesitation, she curled her hands into fists and slammed them down against the floor, once, twice, and the Hulk's eyebrows furrowed, like he wasn't sure what she was up to, until she heard the harsh crack of plaster and concrete giving way. 

Hulk's eyes widened just as she grinned at him victoriously, and slammed her hands down again forcefully.

And then the floor gave way.

\---

The pain of going through three floors wasn't all that bad, not really, not as bad as she remembered it. Once they actually stopped crashing, she saw the Hulk's huge shoulders shrinking, becoming less green, until it was Bruce's face she had tucked under her chin instead. He wasn't making any noise, mostly just making very small movements and and clenching his hands where they were right above her shoulders. 

She hushed him gently just to soothe, running a slightly shaky hand through his hair. Bruce's breathing was shot to hell, and she was pretty sure the burning sensation in her thigh was rebar, the blood spreading down her naked thigh. The feeling of it was all too recognizable, normal for her.

"Bruce? With me?" she asked gently, stroking a hand over the jumping muscles in his shoulders soothingly. He made a whimpering noise, and Emma gently hushed him again, looking around them. They'd landed somewhere she didn't recognize off the top of her head, which suggested it was one of those places in the tower where people actually worked. It was currently entirely dark, probably because it was like two am, but the little lights flashing in front of Emma's eyes suggested she shouldn't be straining her eyes trying to look into the dark.

Some other Avengers had been in the room when they'd gone under. They'd find them. However, Emma wasn't sure when Bruce would be able to move again. From the way he looked like every move hurt, it might be a little while. 

It struck her that during her nearing one and a half years with the Avengers, she had never actually encountered the Hulk. She'd seen Bruce turn into the Hulk, yeah, and she'd ran past him once or twice in a battlefield, but she'd never been there for the crashing. She knew Tony usually got through to the Hulk before anyone else did, was the one who usually gathered Bruce up and brought him back to the tower after a fight, and if it wasn't him, it was Thor. Emma never encountered Bruce after he hulked out and before he'd gotten some sleep and some food and tea.

Yet here she was now, trying desperately to ignore the pain in her thigh and her back as Bruce gathered himself. Yes, Bruce was the one who had taught her practically all of the breathing excercises she knew, and yeah she knew he needed those too for a reason, but she'd never actually made the connection that hulking out and then turning back into Banner would take such a toll on him that he needed to learn how to handle the pain like that. 

"How're we doing?" she crooned gently, and Bruce braced his one hand behind her, half-way sitting up. 

"Emma?" he asked a little groggily. 

"Sure is," she agreed sweetly, and Bruce blinked a couple of times before his eyes widened in horror.

"Oh my god, oh my god, I hurt you! I hurt you," Bruce gasped, his hands immediately going for her head and her shoulders. Emma batted his hands off. 

"I'm fine, Bruce, don't worry! I heal quick," she promised him soothingly. Bruce's breaths were coming short, huffy, and she cupped his face gently. "Look at me. Look at me, Bruce." They met eyes, and Emma placed his hand on her heart, just like he'd done so many times with her in the beginning. "Breathe with me. In and out, just like this. Good."

"Emma!" came Clint's call from somewhere far away. She tipped her head back to look up at Clint's worried face from the floor above them, along with Natasha's silently furious one. 

"I'm good!" she called back up the hole, pressing Bruce's forehead back against her neck, running her hands through his dusty hair. "We're gonna be fine!"

"Don't you dare move, we're coming down," Tony said, but Clint didn't even let him finish his sentence before he was dropping down through the hole, masterfully landing with his feet on both sides of Emma's. "Alright, I guess Clint's coming down. We'll be there in a second. Jarvis, hit the lights on that floor, dimmed.

Immediately, a few lights flickered on in Emma's peripheral vision, dimmed as asked. The ones closest to where they'd crashed through crackled with electricity, but then went out entirely. 

" **How are you doing**?" Clint signed, and Emma's sign was a little wonky, what with Bruce being in the way, but she still managed a ' **fine** '. The archer frowned, but shifted until he was sitting comfortably in the rubble next to the two of them, instead of half-way on top of them.

"Alright, hey, hey, Bruce, let's get you up," Clint murmured, his voice soothing and calm as he gently took hold of Bruce's naked shoulders and helped him into a sitting position next to Emma instead of half on top of her. It was first then, it seemed that Bruce even realized the other man was there.

"Clint, oh my god, I'm so sorry," he hiccuped, looking absolutely distraught, and Clint shook himself out of his silent rage enough to listen to him, and to grab the back of Bruce's neck. He made Bruce meet his eyes, made him watch carefully as he formed the words. 

"I know how the Hulk can get when you can't control the change. Okay? I don't blame you," he said, and he did mean it. Clint realized rationally that Bruce had less control over the Hulk's actions when he hadn't controlled the change, knew that Bruce couldn't just snap out of it. That wasn't how things worked. Didn't mean Clint wasn't mad. He was angry his kid was hurt, he was angry Tony had even let her stay in the room, was angry Bruce hadn't gone straight to bed when he got home, was angry Emma was even out of bed. Angry, angry, angry, but that wouldn't change anything right now. "I don't blame you. Lie down here, Tasha's coming with some provisions."

Just then, Natasha dropped down, crouching to absorb the shock, and immediately going for Emma on the floor. She paid no attention to Clint, entirely sure he had her back, and needing him to have Bruce's back as well, while she fixed Emma up as best as she could.

"Hi возлюбленная, I need you to stay with me," Natasha said in an entirely calm voice that Clint recognized as her in-control Black Widow voice. She ripped open a first-aid kit, tossing a few protein bars and a water-bottle at Clint, who pulled his hoodie over his head and forced Bruce into it, feeding him the protein bar and making him sip the water.

Of the two, Natasha was better at patching people up, but she still wasn't a medic. She did what she could with the wounds to Emma's shoulders and back, but once she came to the rebar, she hesitated. 

"Just yank it out," Emma breathed. 

"Not a great idea," Bruce said from where he was wrapped up in Clint's arms and his slightly too-big hoodie. "It's on the outside of your thigh, but that doesn't mean it won't make you bleed like crazy still, and y'know, nerve damage happens easily when you're not careful."

"I heal," Emma pointed out, and Bruce frowned deeply, his hands going for his glasses, which were no longer on his face. He frowned even deeper.

"Yeah, but not predictably. It's really willy-nilly on if you're going to heal quick enough that you won't bleed out."

"Yeah, no, I agree with Bruce here; having good healing powers is not a good enough reason to throw yourself in front of a rampaging Hulk," Clint grit out, surprisingly looking sort of angry.

"Calculated risk," Emma muttered, feeling sort of loopy with the blood-loss. There was a whoosh of air, and Pietro appeared with a bigger box of bandages in hand and a blanket.

"Man, you must be bad at math," Pietro said without any sort of hesitation, but he still looked a little worried, a frown on his face. Natasha snatched the box of bandages out of his hand briskly, ripping one huge pad open. 

"Clint, Pietro, grab and lift when I tell you to," she urged, spreading the blanket Pietro brought over the rubble next to her. At Pietro's grossed out look, Emma groaned. 

"What, you want to leave me here, puff boy?" she asked him incredulously. 

"You'd be easier to deal with," Pietro pointed out, pondering to himself.

"You want me to die of an infection in my leg just so I'll stop beating you up for taking my socks? You absolute shithead!" Emma squealed, and Natasha pinned Pietro with a look. Natasha was generally pretty intimidating, but when she really did it on purpose, put some effort into it, the effect was startlingly horrifying and imposing.

"Nobody's going to die of an infection," she said firmly, and Pietro hurriedly moved over so Emma could sling her arm around his neck, along with Clint's. Natasha carefully wrapped her hands around Emma's thigh, and met eyes with Clint so he could see her lips in the dim lighting. "One. Two." 

Pietro and Clint lifted, and Emma let out a sharp, high noise of pain as Natasha pulled too, settling her down on the blanket and covering the hole in her flesh with bandages. From Emma's little whimpering noises, she probably wasn't feeling too good from that either. Natasha wrapped her up in the blanket, and Pietro disappeared again, this time reappearing eating a banana and a bag of cheetos underneath his arm.

"It's alright, Emma, you're good," Natasha soothed, smoothing a hand over Emma's hair and coming away with blood on her hands. "ебать. Pietro, hand me another- yes, good."

Another bandage was pressed into her hand, and she dabbed it against the back of Emma's head, making the younger redhead hiss a little. 

" **Upstairs** ," Natasha signed at Clint, who nodded and helped Bruce to his feet. Without hesitation, Natasha scooped Emma up in a bridal carry, being careful to let the injured leg rest rather than be pressed up against her. "Pietro, go call Helen. Ask her in a medical professional capacity what we can do."

"I'm a medical professional," Bruce complained as Clint supported him into the elevator. Natasha followed, rolling her eyes at him.

"Shut up, Bruce, you need a nap, not a stressful situation, and there's a reason you're not our only medical professional," Clint said firmly. 

"And what's that?" Emma asked. 

"So not everything's on him. It's the benefits of having a team: you get to divide responsibility, most of the time."

"Not true! Last time I did stupid thing on team, it was all on me!" Pietro complained as the doors closed. He popped open the bag of cheetos, and shoved a couple in his mouth.

"Yeah, well, you got yourself shot when we told you to not do the thing that got you shot. So yeah, that one's on you. However, did we tell you to patch up your own bullet wounds?" Clint cajoled. Pietro frowned. 

"No," he agreed reluctantly. 

"Did we tell you to go bleed on your own?"

"...No."

"Yeah, see, not so much on you. Just the healing part," Clint pointed out as the doors closed, and Pietro's foot began tapping rapidly against the floor. 

"Jarvis?" Natasha asked, looking down at Emma's pale face with a small, reassuring smile. 

"Dr. Cho has been contacted, and she is on her way," he stated, because Jarvis was the absolute best. 

"Hey, Jay, if I die, tell Bucky I love him," Emma slurred, the lights going a little fuzzy around her field of vision. 

"Nobody's dying," Natasha repeated, a little louder. "Stay with me, Emma."

"Mmm. Blood loss is so annoying," Emma groaned, her eyes slipping closed as she felt her heart beat in her head. She heard Natasha yell this time, as black ink swirled under her eyelids, and everything went dark.

\---


	4. Pancakes And Illegal Warfare

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for disappearing again!! First there were exams, and then a dry spell, and then I just couldn't really grasp what I wanted to do with the story. I'm back now though! I will definitely not manage a schedule like I usually do, but I'll try to get some chapters out as soon as I can! Sorry about the delay, and thank you for being awesome and patient and great!!! I love you and your support so much!!!   
> Now, to make up for my absence, here's a long chapter!   
> Hope you enjoy! <3

 

When she began to drift back into consciousness, she could hear the adults' low voices like a buzz floating in the air around her. Emma was pretty sure she was on a couch, and that said couch was the one in Bruce's lab. When she cracked a careful eye open, she could see the pea-colored fabric, and was then _entirely_ sure it was the couch in Bruce's workshop. She hoped she hadn't bled all over it. 

The light started to hurt her head, so she closed her eyes again, and listened instead. She could hear the clinking of Tony pacing in his Iron Man suit somewhere nearby, and heard her mom's voice a couple of yards away, talking to another woman who wasn't Darcy, Kate, Jane, or Pepper. Probably Helen Cho, then. 

Emma could barely hear anything other than that, and lifted her head slightly, peeking over the arm of the couch as the swoosh of a door opening filled her ears. 

She saw just as Steve Rogers stepped into the room, in only shorts, a tank top, and with his shield on one arm. His hair was tousled, and the moment he and Tony met eyes, they hurried towards each other, grabbing each other's free arms and tugging each other in.

"Steve!" Tony gasped. "Hey, hey babe, you okay?" 

"Yeah, yeah, I'm good, what about you?" Steve asked worriedly, cupping the back of his husband's head to check for bumps. 

"I'm fine, I'm- Seriously Steven, I'm fine! How's Peter?" Tony asked Steve hurriedly. 

"Darcy's got him in one of the panic rooms," he replied in his Captain America voice, clamping his hand down on Tony's metal-covered bicep. "He's okay, Tony."

Immediately as those words left his husband's mouth, Tony's shoulders relaxed, and he breathed a deep sigh of relief. Despite being the one in armor, he leaned his forehead against Steve's shoulder, and Steve, looking much more vulnerable except for maybe the shield, cradled the back of Tony's head reassuringly, like he was shielding him. 

Good. She'd prevented anyone else from getting hurt. She sank back down, and felt the couch dip around where her legs were. 

"Hey sweetie. With us?" came Clint's soft voice, and Emma groaned softly, closing her eyes. The throbbing in the back of her head was only rivaled by the way her entire back felt like one big bruise. 

"Maybe. Where's Bucky?" Emma mumbled, as Clint carefully tucked a strand of hair back behind her ear, careful not to disturb her head injury. 

"Can't hear you, sweetheart," he sighed, and Emma turned a little so she could move her hands and he could see her face, making the sign for B and then 'grumpy'. "Oh, Bucky? He's in one of the safe-capsules with Darcy, and since Darcy's got Pete, with him too. They're safe."

Now that she tried to explore what else hurt besides her head and back, she felt her thigh burn with pain. She'd definitely had much much worse before, so she didn't pay it as much mind as she could've. Everything tingled with what Emma associated with her body healing; the odd sensation of flesh and muscle-fibers and occasionally bone desperately trying to knit itself back together. 

" **Big green**?" she signed at Clint, and he sighed. 

"Bruce is okay. A little shaken up. Thor has taken over hugging duty so I could sit here with you." At Emma's raised eyebrow, her dad shrugged. "He needs time to calm down. Hugging helps. He's probably touch-starved, the poor bastard. It's good that Thor is broad and heavy."

Emma attempted to shift her weight, only to yelp in pain. Quickly, Clint helped her back down into the least painful position. 

"Ow, ow, oh baby, where does it hurt the most?" he cooed sympathetically. 

" **Leg** ," she signed, and Clint chuckled a little, stroking his knuckles over her cheek. 

"Yeah, I'd expect it to. The doc gave you morphine but your body just keeps burning through it."

"Dumbass body," she said, loud and clear enough for Clint to register, and he pressed a kiss to her forehead, now frowning a little.

"Want me to get Helen to set you up with some more?"

"No. **Weird** **dreams** ," Emma muttered and signed. 

"Yeah, alright. I get that too," he agreed. "What do you want for us to do?"

"Bucky?" she tried again, and he nodded. 

"You bet, sweetheart. We'll bust him out of the box," he agreed, grabbing her hand and pressing a kiss to her knuckles. "How about a bed? Yours or ours?" 

"Not mine," Emma said, and felt her eyelids getting heavy again. She could feel as bloodvessels in her thigh reconnected, the new surge of wet against the bandages Helen had no doubt fixed onto her leg, as her body struggled to patch her back together. 

"Alright," Clint agreed gently as she went back to dozing on the couch, "I think we could all use some sleep."

"Dr. Cho, thank you for rushing over here in the middle of the night," Steve said as soon as Tony had filled him in, stepping around his husband to face her. 

She was wearing a white bathrobe with green, pink, orange, and blue polka-dots, and looked surprisingly professional for being snatched out of bed in the middle of the night.

"Yeah. Sure. Don't ever expect me to goddamn do it again," she yawned, and Natasha smirked at her. 

"I'm sure we can set up a guestroom for you for the night," she said, crossing her arms over her chest and looking over at Tony. "As thanks."

"Yeah, sure, of course," Tony said, drumming his fingers against the glass protecting the arc reactor distantly. "Jarvis?"

"There's a room available next to Miss Bishop," Jarvis relayed, and Tony yawned a little. 

"Right. There you go, Helen."

"Time for you to tuck in, too," Steve said, ever so patiently. "You guys should've waited until tomorrow to test the protocols out."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Tony replied, but there was a shifty look in his eyes that said just how guilty he was feeling they hadn't done just that. 

"C'mon, let's go grab Peter and go to bed. Okay?" Steve said softly, turning Tony around and shooing him towards the doors.

"Stark?" Natasha said calmly. Tony stopped and turned around a little, to meet Natasha's green eyes. Immediately he regretted that decision. Her eyes were blazing with cold, deadly fury. "The next time you put Emma in danger like that, I'm holding you physically responsible."

"Don't you mean fiscally?" Tony joked a little nervously, which was not the smartest thing he could've done.

"Nat," Clint said lowly as he saw her eyes narrow just the slightest, trying to stop her and simultaneously not. Maybe just warning her that whatever she was about to do wasn't the greatest plan. Natasha stepped towards the billionaire, and Steve shot his shield out in front of Tony just in time to catch Natasha's fist against it. 

"Jesus!" Helen exclaimed, and Clint was on his feet in a second, right behind her and ready to back her up if push came to shove. He didn't like attacking teammates, and especially not _these_ teammates, but he could tell Natasha wasn't feeling lenient and ready to forgive right now.

"Whoah, Natasha," Steve said in his calming Captain America voice, blue eyes a little wide. "It wasn't Tony's fault. It was an accident. Everyone's going to be fine. Okay? No need to fight."

"No need to fight? You would be _furious_ if it was me and Peter," Natasha snarled, jabbing against the shield again in sheer anger. "I have _every_ _goddamn_ _right_ to be equally furious when it's you and Emma."

"Look, Nat, I thought it'd be fine," Tony hurried out, and this time, when Steve tried to protect his husband from Natasha's anger, she jabbed two sure fingers in under his arm, immediately rendering it limp, before giving the Iron Man suit's chestplate a very solid punch. With a quick twist of her leg and a strategically landed elbow, she had Tony and Steve on the ground, pinning Steve with a foot and Tony by the hips. 

"It was obviously not fine. You will not be in Emma's goddamn vicinity alone until I've decided you aren't a threat to her and her safety. Do you hear me?" she said viciously. When Tony just stared in complete shock, she grabbed the shoulders of the armor and shook him. Seeing as the Iron Man armor itself weighed a lot, and Tony weighed more when he was in it, the look of sheer disbelief on Helen's face was understandable. Clint knew not to underestimate his partner, however. " _Do_ _you hear_ _me_?!"

"Yes, yes, god, yes, I hear you! Get off," Tony got out, his voice a little choked. Natasha was back on her feet in a second, looking down at the two of them like a big storm cloud. Clint offered Steve a hand up, but kept his face neutral. He sort of agreed with Natasha, was the thing. Had it been Peter, Steve and Tony would've reamed them, no doubt. That they brushed it off with Emma just because she could heal, that didn't sit right with him. 

While Natasha now looked calm to the majority of people with eyes, Clint knew his partner well enough to know she was vibrating with tension. 

"C'mon. Take Emma, would you?" Clint said silently. Steve had the worried-leader look on his face, like he was feeling conflicted in his husband duties and his team-leader duties, but Clint met his eyes and Steve and Tony stepped aside to let Natasha carry the sleeping Emma out again. Clint turned to Helen, and smiled reassuringly. "Again, thanks, Doc. Don't know what we would've done without you."

"Yeah, sure," Helen said, looking a little spooked as Clint followed his partner onto the elevator and closed the doors. 

When Natasha shifted so she was holding Emma more comfortably, Clint pressed the button for their floor, and waited. And waited. Finally, Natasha took a deep breath.

"I'm not going to apologize," she snapped, turning her head to look at him. Clint shrugged, folding his bow back into it's more easily transportable shape and flipping it in his hand. 

"Don't think you should." Natasha blinked at him in surprise. He shrugged again. "No, I'm serious. Tony should know better than to let Bruce do anything even vaguely strenuous when he's had a long day and barely any sleep. And yeah, Tony and Steve would definitely be equally pissed. Maybe they wouldn't beat us up, because Steve's not too big on punching teammates, but y'know, they'd be so, so angry."

Natasha looked down at the dozing Emma, and took a deep, calming breath. 

"Yeah," she said softly. "I just... Her healing powers are unreliable. She shouldn't toss herself like a sacrifical lamb in front of the Hulk just because she thinks she'll heal. That's a destructive tendency I don't want her to pick up from us."

Clint pressed a thumb into a crick in his neck, and sighed.

"She's gonna become a superhero too, isn't she?" he groaned, and Natasha's lips twitched into a small smile as they met eyes again. 

"We'll see. Not if we have any say in it. If she does become a superhero, I think she'll finally manage to do what no one else in the world has done."

"And what's that?"

"Killing Black Widow." 

Clint burst out laughing, and cupped the back of Emma's head, brushing a kiss against Natasha's cheekbone. 

"Thankfully, you're both going to be okay. I'll go grab Mr. Grumpy. Your room tonight?"

"Sure," Natasha replied, as the doors opened to show their floor. The two redheads stepped off. "Tell Winter to bring his own sheets."

"Of course, Agent Romanov," he said sweetly, and Natasha narrowed her eyes at him over her shoulder as the doors closed again. 

\---

Bucky stayed with Emma in Natasha's bed that night, and Natasha got up a few times during the night to check on them, waking Bucky maybe only once or twice. 

" **She's going to be fine, Natalia. You need to relax** ," he muttered silently in Russian, without even opening his eyes, the third time she came in, as Natasha laid a hand on Emma's ribcage. It was comforting to hear her breathe, but it was even more reassuring when she could feel it. 

" **You know nothing, James. Nothing** ," Natasha hissed back, immediately going quiet when Emma shifted sleepily, her fingers reaching out. The redhead grasped them and pressed a little kiss to the slim fingers with the chipped green nailpolish. 

The room was silent for a few moments, as both assassins held their breaths, waiting for Emma to settle back down. Once her breathing was back to being even, Bucky cracked an eye open to look at Natasha. 

"Doctor Cho said so. We trust her," he said silently, like that was the absolute truth. Natasha took in the protective curl of Bucky's body around her little daughter, the lock of her hair curled around his finger. 

" _Emma_ trusts her," she corrected.

"Which means I do too."

"Maybe not the wisest." 

Bucky shrugged, twirling his finger around her hair one more time. 

"She has good instincts," he murmured. "While I think everyone's a danger, she has... A filter, of sorts."

"Ones she can fight, ones she doesn't think she'll have to fight, ones she hopes she won't have to fight, and ones she definitely won't have to fight. I think very few people get past that last line." 

Bucky's eyes glowed, and his lips twitched into a smile. 

"I keep forgetting that you're a danger too."

"Really?"

"Same with Steve. Darcy. Not so much Wilson and Barton. But Banner."

"Yeah. I think it's been too long since we had to go save the world. It's bad that I think that's bad, isn't it," Natasha mused silently, tucking a strand of Emma's copper hair behind her ear. Bucky didn't reply to that, but Natasha was satisfied for now. She took one last silent moment to listen to Emma's long, slow breathing before disappearing back down the hall into Clint's room. 

When she crawled into bed, Clint made a noise like a surprised cat, a sort of grumble, but Natasha wrapped her arms around his waist and he settled down again, comforted by her proximity and the reassuring feeling of her hand against his sternum. 

She would undoubtedly be up again in an hour or two, leaping out of bed to go check on Emma, but for now, the two agents could rest safely.

\---

By the morning, Emma's leg was almost entirely healed, just a scab left behind, and she kept picking on it like it was stressing her out that it was even there. She wouldn't stop poking it until Natasha taped it over with gauze, not wanting to see the ugly wound any more than she had to on Emma's usually unmarred skin. 

Bucky offered to serve her breakfast from their small kitchen on their floor so she wouldn't have to move around all that much just yet, but Clint and Natasha were gonna make their way down, after making sure for the tenth time that Bucky could handle it. When Bucky rolled his eyes at them, Natasha smacked him up against the fridge and stared at him until his eyes flickered away from hers. 

"Oookay, I'm gonna... Leave you to deal with that, Buck," Clint said slowly. "I'll put some tea on for you downstairs, alright Nat?"

"Alright," Natasha said entirely calmly, like she wasn't pressing a whole two-hundred-pound super soldier to the fridge with two fingertips and a glare. 

Exasperatedly, he stepped into the elevator and hit the button for the common floor. Natasha wasn't easy to anger or get on edge, but once she was there, you might as well just ride it out. As someone who'd had Natasha be pretty mad at him a handful of times in their long partnership, Clint was extremly aware of that. The other Avengers, well, maybe not so much. He would warn them, but honestly, Natasha could use the cathartic experience of igniting fear in mens' hearts or whatever. She could enjoy that sometimes. 

Clint hadn't gotten much rest tonight either, if only because Natasha couldn't stay still once she was actually in bed. Maybe she could survive on catnaps, but Clint had not only been woken up in the middle of the night to fight one of his friends to save his daughter from harm, he'd also gotten fairly used to sleeping at least six hours at a time by now, and he was _tired_. 

He tipped his head back against the wall of the elevator, closing his eyes tiredly and considering sliding into a pile on the floor. Jarvis knew where he was going, and if someone was in the kitchen, they'd probably just drag him out on the floor of the common room, check to see if he was alive, and then leave him be. That sounded nice. A nap sounded real nice right about now, actually. 

Before he could act on that impulse, however, he was interrupted.

"Hey, Clint. Just the fella I needed to talk to," came Steve's voice from pretty much exactly in front of him, or else his hearing aids wouldn't have picked it all up. Clint opened his eyes to see a slightly dishevled Captain stepping into the elevator. 

"Sup Cap. What do you need?" he replied automatically. 

"I just wanted to apologize on Tony's behalf," Steve began, and Clint held a hand up, because not only was he super-tired, he was also super-tired of Steve's puppy eyes. The other man's eyes widened in surprise. 

"I'm gonna stop you right goddamn there. I don't need you to apologize to me for Tony. Firstly, he's a grown ass man, he can make his own apologies, and secondly, he pissed my partner off to a level I haven't seen in years. So you apologizing to me isn't going to do anything to fix anything," Clint said, hands in the air. Steve sighed. 

"Okay. Then let me apologize to _you_ , parent to parent," Steve said sincerely, making the ASL sign for 'parent' as he spoke. "Natasha was entirely right, we would've been very angry with you if anything happened to Peter on your watch. You're equally entitled to be angry. I'm sorry, Clint. Please accept my apology."

When Steve stretched a hand out, Clint stared at him and his ridiculously huge puppy eyes for a solid three seconds. God, maybe he wasn't that tired of them. Obviously they still managed to throw him for a loop.

"Jesus Cap, tone down the sincerity, alright? Christ, yeah, you fucked up. Thanks for admitting it," he agreed, taking Steve's hand in a firm grasp. Steve smiled at him in relief. 

"How's she doing?"

"Better, I guess. Nat's definitely still pissed, but Bucky's stopped hovering, which means he actually believes Emma when she says she feels fine."

Steve nodded. 

"That's good, that's good. Bruce is a little shaken up, but I think he got some sleep, at least. How did Nat do? I know she can have a hard time with it when someone's injured," he questioned. 

"Oh, she was up, like, at least every hour," Clint agreed. "I think she just gets antsy, what with Emma coming back so recently, and now this."

"Yeah. Bruce will undoubtedly want to apologize."

"I'm sure. I don't think Emma's gonna accept any apology though, because she doesn't think there's anything to apologize for, but y'know, he can always try," Clint sighed. 

"Yeah," Steve agreed. "Y'know what, I'm going to check on him before I join you guys. Save some coffee for me and Tony."

"Sure thing, Cap," Clint agreed as he stepped out into the kitchen on the common room floor.

Kate was making pancakes by the stove, bopping along to some song in her earbuds, with Lucky running around her feet, chasing the cat around. Thor sat by the kitchen table with Peter, keeping a watchful eye on him as the little boy ate some berries and cereal. Sam was putting Peter's fluffy brown hair into a very small pigtail at the top of his head to get his hair out of his face, and Darcy was yawning and smiling at him at the same time. 

As soon as Victoria spotted Clint, she meowed and jumped onto his legs, claws out, giving him a look like he better save her from the goddamn dog or she was going to flip her shit.

"Morning, Thor," Clint grunted as he lifted Victoria into his arms to prevent his entire legs from being shredded. "How's Bruce?"

"Good morning, archer. Asleep, I believe. How is our little warrior?" Thor asked back, frowning worriedly. 

"She's healing. She's already trying to get up and walk, so y'know, she's got about her normal level of patience," he replied with a shrug as Victoria settled into his arms like a giant baby, purring contentedly as she side-eyed Lucky, who had sat down in front of Clint like the good boy he was. 

"What about Nat?" Darcy questioned sleepily, but with a knowing look Clint's way. 

"Well, I think she's gonna go train a bit before she eats anything. We'll see. Otherwise she might have tea with Bruce, because apparently, he makes better tea than I do."

"How can you make bad tea?" Sam asked incredulously. "It's water and leaves."

"That's like saying how can you make bad coffee! Of course you can make sucky tea," Kate argued, pulling her earbuds out. "Hey Clint. Guess what I hate about the Avengers?"

"The alarms in the middle of the night?" Clint suggested as he moved towards the coffeepot. Victoria was apparently bored with being in his arms, as she struggled to crawl up on his shoulders, headbutting the side of his face disapprovingly. He tried to juggle her as well as dodge Lucky and get over to the coffee-machine. He was lucky he had regained the majority of his balance since he went deaf, or else he probably would've fell.

"Uh, yeah! It was so loud, and for those of us who don't actually live here, code green isn't super telling," Kate shot back as she tossed a slightly burnt and lumpy pancake onto a plate. Clint poured coffee into his purple mug he'd gotten from Natasha billions of years ago as Victoria hopped off his shoulders and onto the counter. He swiped the poptart box out of her sight quickly and closed the cupboards. "Pancake?"

"You can't cook to save your life, Katie-Kate. Let the pros take over," he scoffed, swiping half of his coffee in one sip, and then sniffing the pancake batter. "This is... Not good. Please dear god, step away from the kitchenware before you hurt yourself."

"Fuck you," Kate said, splattering some pancake batter on his face. 

"Do not make spill my coffee all over you!" Clint shouted as Lucky barked and jumped up to lick it off. 

Peter's joyful laughter filled the room, from where he was being carried on Sam's shoulders. 

"Lookie Unca' Clint, I'm taller 'n you!" he giggled. 

"You sure are, buddy! Look at that!" Clint agreed with a grin as he tried to make Lucky get off of him. "Down, Lucky, c'mon man, I gotta restart the batter."

"Not that that's much of an achievement," Kate muttered mutinously under her breath as she went to sit behind the kitchen island. Sam burst out laughing. 

"She's got you there," he agreed. 

"Do you want pancakes or not, asshole?" Clint threatened as he pulled the ingredients he'd need out of the cupboards. 

"Actually, I'm just here to get the soldiers and Nat to go running, but from what I've heard that might not be happening."

"Please dear god, take Bucky running. He goddamn needs it," Darcy exclaimed, forcing herself upright from where she'd been leaning on Thor. "He's going to be restless all day otherwise. Take him, I _beg_ of you, Sam."

"That's a nice morning-greeting," came Bucky's voice from the elevator. Everyone's heads turned to watch him come out carrying Emma on his back. She was wrapped up in Thor's old cape, her hair up in an asgardian braid, but looked very determined and not in pain. 

"Hey babe," Darcy said, shooting him an innocent smile. Bucky rolled his eyes fondly, but hitched Emma up higher. "Hey sugarbabe. How's the leg doing?"

"Itches like all hell," Emma announced loudly. 

"What happened to staying upstairs?" Clint asked Bucky incredulously, and Bucky shrugged. 

"I'm powerless against her," he said in a deadpan, and Clint sighed loudly. 

"Fine. But you're going in the couch and you are going to _stay_ there and let us dote on you as much as we want!" Clint demanded. Emma rolled her eyes as well, in perfect imitation of Bucky.

"Fine! It's not like it's that-" she began, but was interrupted immediately. 

"Don't say that, it's pretty goddamn bad, doll," Bucky growled firmly, and Emma rolled her eyes. 

"You guys are so overprotective," she complained as Bucky began walking towards the living room. Clint took the pan off the hotplate and hurried after them, grabbing Victoria off the counter as he went. 

"Because you literally throw yourself in front of danger! We have all the right, sweetheart, I have _Captain_ _America'_ s seal of approval on that we're not being overprotective, Captain America's! We're just being plain ole' protective, and you're gonna suck it up, young lady," Clint ranted as Bucky plopped her down on the couch.

"What did Cap say?" Emma questioned curiously.

"That you better be resting," Clint said promptly, and dropped Victoria in her lap. Immediately the cat, who had been scratching at Clint to be let down, settled down and blinked at Emma slowly. 

"Not fair! Illegal warfare! Buck, stop him!" Emma gasped in shock as Victoria purred happily and settled down in her lap. Reluctantly, Emma's hand disappeared into Victoria's white fur. "You little traitor."

"No moving until Helen can look at your leg, alright? You should be healing up but that doesn't mean you should put any more weight on it than you need to. We just care about you, okay sweetheart?" Clint sighed, sitting down on the coffeetable. 

Emma twisted her lips, and looked at him from under her eyelashes sort of shyly. 

"Yeah, I know, dad," she mumbled, signing along, and Clint smiled, leaning down to press a reverent kiss to her forehead. 

"Good. Now, you stay there, and I'll have your personal pet-butler come give you pancakes later. Alright?" Emma nodded, and Clint returned to the kitchen. 

Just then, Vision came through the floor. 

"Jesus of all fucks! Kate yelled and tossed a coffee mug at the android. They shifted density in confusion, and the coffee mug went flying through and hit the wall behind them. "Oh my god, Clint, tell them to stop!"

"Hey, I didn't make this one. This is on Tony, Bruce, Helen, and Pym. Alright? I have zero control over this one. The other two... Well," Clint made a so-so motion with his hand. 

"I'm sorry to have startled you, Miss Bishop," Vision said kindly, and Kate narrowed her eyes at them. 

"That was a good, harmless, poor little mug. What'd it ever done to you, Kate?" Clint mocked, and Kate made a face at him. 

"If it makes you feel any better, your aim was excellent," Vision said helpfully, and Kate smirked at Clint. 

"Hear that, sucker? _Excellent_." Clint harumphed, and went back to the pancakes.

Bucky moved past Vision to press a brief kiss to Darcy's forehead, only to be grabbed and kissed properly on the lips. 

"G'morning," Darcy smiled at him, now more awake, and he smiled back. 

"Good morning. Want to take a ride on the bike later?"

"Oh, you're so tempting, I might have to say yes." 

"That's what I like to hear," Bucky said with a wink, before moving towards the fridge for some juice.

Clint stacked three pancakes on a platter and handed them to Bucky, who took them out to Emma, before he began making more for the rest of the people sitting by the kitchen table. By the time Steve came into the kitchen, everyone had at least had one pancake. Clint was helping Peter not choke on his own pancake, but the moment the doors opened to reveal Steve, he got up to make more. Damn super-soldiers and demigods and their metabolisms. 

"Hi guy- I mean team!" Steve corrected quickly, shooting them a sheepish smile. Peter made a noise that sounded like 'hi daddy' through his mouthful of pancakes. "Hi team. How are you doing today?"

"Gender-neutral until Vision decides on their gender, huh?" Sam asked as Vision sat down next to Sam by the table. While they didn't eat, they liked the social situation; sitting down by the table to eat together, like a family did. It was a rare occurrence to see all the tower's residents in the same place, but it was also hard to find somewhere empty. Vision preferred times like these: enough people to make a crowd, but not enough to make them uncomfortable. 

"I don't know," Steve said thoughtfully as he picked Peter up out of his chair for a cuddle and a kiss. "I like team."

"Do we count as team if we're not on the team?" Darcy asked him from where she was leaning against Thor's shoulder, clutching her coffee cup to her chest like it was a life-sustaining elixir.

"Well, you can't use team in both senses of the word, because that will be confusing," Kate reasoned. "Saying 'Let's go team!' leads us to think you're talking only Avengers." 

"That depends on the situation," Steve protested as he gave Peter a sip of his milk to wash the pancake down. "Besides, I don't tell the team to go, the alarm does."

"Now that's just spreading misinformation, Stevie," Bucky said without hesitation. "You lead, we follow."

"That's also a lie, because I could yell at your sorry ass to turn around until I was blue in the face and you'd still go barrelling forward," Steve shot back, cuffing Bucky upside the head with familiar ease as he went by him towards the coffee machine, and getting a solid thwack on the leg in return. Peter looked over at Bucky over his father's shoulder, and giggled.

"Most of the time I'm barrelling forward to save _your_ tuchus, Mister I'm-gonna-fight-it-with-my-bare-hands-and-a-shield-the-size-of-a-dinner-plate," Bucky scoffed at him, eyes narrowed playfully.

"Who's asking you anyway?" 

"Also, who the hell showed Bucky Vine?" Darcy demanded. Kate held her hand up. 

"It was me. I had some spectacular ones I knew he'd appreciate," she said, and Darcy laughed. 

"Hawkeye's got some good eyes on 'em," Bucky agreed solemnly.

Clint flipped up more pancakes on everyone's platters as they laughed, and Steve settled in with Peter in his lap, letting the toddler steal pieces of his pancakes. Bucky gave his friend a pointed look, and Steve ignored it willfully. 

After there'd been a lockdown in the tower, or a battle, or anything distressing where his teammates and friends could be hurt, Steve usually got very... Clingy. First it had been his teammates he clung to, and then when Bucky moved in, it was him. When he and Tony became involved, it was most often him. Now, though, it was mostly Peter, because Peter was not only a child, but he also wasn't a superhero. 

The child was happy enough to be clutched to Steve's broad chest. He told his dad all about his dreams and about the book Tony was reading for him, and Steve hummed and asked questions, and Darcy sat across the table with a hand to her mouth to hide her smile. Thor couldn't hide his smile at the little boy's antics either. 

Peter talked fast and loud enough that when the elevator bell dinged, it was soft enough to be drowned out by him. He still noticed though, and stopped mid-sentence to whip his head around to look excitedly at the opening doors.

When Helen and Natasha stepped out, he brightened. Natasha was his favorite aunt, though Darcy could give her a run for her money some days. Helen was wearing the same polka-dot bathrobe she'd arrived in, but now her hair was a little more smoothed out. Natasha looked freshly showered, wearing a black t-shirt and yogapants, along with a fairly murderous glare that Peter didn't even seem to notice.

"Hi Peter," Natasha said smoothly as the toddler scrambled out of his father's lap and ran for her. 

"Hi Auntie Tasha!" he squealed, hopping into her arms. Natasha caught him easily, and hefted him up on her hip. While she might be mad at his parents, she wasn't going to take it out on the toddler. 

"Remember that favor I asked of you?" she asked him, and Peter gaped at her for a second, big doe-eyes blinking in surprise. Then his squishy baby-face turned into a much more serious look. 

"Uh huh."

"I need that for now. Okay?" Natasha asked him, and Peter nodded as she set him down, toddling back to his dad as everyone gawked a little. All except for Bucky, who didn't care, and Clint, who knew what she meant. 

"I- Look, Natasha," Steve began as he turned to face Natasha and Helen, with the same sincere tone he'd used before he'd approached Clint in the elevator. He didn't get any further before he was stopped.

"Shh, daddy! Auntie Tasha doesn't wanna talk," Peter whispered loudly, pressing his chubby hand over his dad's mouth. Steve's shocked expression and the stunned silence that followed left Natasha with a window to leave the room, and she took it, making Emma's name sign at Bucky, and getting a ' **living room** ' signed back. 

Before Steve could recover, she was gone. 

"So where's my patient? Up and walking already?" Helen asked, yawning a little. Clint didn't catch the last bit, but he caught the most important part, and tossed a thumb in the direction of the common room.

"She's in the living room, and she's impatient," he sighed. "Would you mind taking a look at her now? I'll whip you up some pancakes when you're done."

"Ooh, bribery. I'm in," Helen agreed, and Clint laughed as he followed his partner's trail into the living room. 

Natasha was sitting on the coffee table, smiling at Emma, who was making a wholehearted argument for mini-M&M's being better than real M&M's, one hand waving in the air for emphasis and the other in Victoria's fur. 

"Isn't there science behind that? That the mini ones are better than the originals?" Clint tossed in as he and Helen rounded the couch. "Obviously, you're right, I'm just asking."

"The chocolate to cover ratio is different. It makes the mini ones taste sweeter, and people generally like it when things are sweeter," Natasha said as Helen tugged away the dressing around Emma's wound and frowned at it thoughtfully. 

"That explains so much, and I can't believe you know that," Clint said thoughtfully, and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Guadalajara?" she reminded him, and Clint scratched behind his ear thoughtfully, his fingertips pressing his hearing aid further into his ear instinctively. Natasha had nagged him to take them to Tony and have them fixed so they wouldn't keep coming loose if it bothered him, but he had waved her off, saying it was nothing. 

"Riiight. Guadalajara. The Hershey thing?" Natasha nodded, and he hummed. "I barely remember anything from that mission."

"Because you threw up for most of it."

"Right! The puke-a-palooza," Clint said distastefully. "I'm never eating a Hershey's bar again."

Helen snorted, and Emma grinned at him as Helen bent her knee and touched and prodded.

"Well, I'd say she's pretty much fully healed. Normally, you'd want to do some physical therapy, but your powers seem to want you to be able to hit the ground running," the doctor finally said, a thoughtful look on her face. 

"See, guys, I'm _fine_! _Now_ can I go see Damian and Layla?" Emma whined as Victoria slipped from her lap and disappeared into the kitchen to eat, probably. Helen followed her with another yawn, almost certainly heading for the coffeemaker.

Natasha and Clint looked at each other, and the redhead's lips were a thin, thin line of displeasure. They should ground her for fighting the Hulk, for scaring them, for all of it, but that would just make her miserable and hurt, and even if they got her to promise she wouldn't do it again, she definitely would do it again, if she felt she had to. 

That was the problem with having a kid with noble, good intentions. Damn Emma and her sense of responsibility for other's safety. 

"We really should act on punishments often than we do," Clint said thoughtfully, and Natasha gave him a look that said 'ya think?'. 

"Let us think about it a little more, возлюбленная, alright?" she said, turning back to Emma. "You're not supposed to meet them until one, right? Let us think about it. If you can move without hurting, and I will not tolerate a lie that you're fine, then we'll consider it." 

"Okay, mom," Emma agreed, a beaming smile on her face. "Thank you!"

Natasha pursed her lips, but she seemed pleased by the 'mom' part. Gently, like she was scared she'd just hurt her more, the older redhead brushed a few curls out of Emma's face, and Emma got a determined look on her face. She pulled Natasha onto the couch, and then proceeded to splay out on top of her. Her coppery hair had been tossed out over Natasha's stomach, her arm curled around her waist, and her leg tossed over Natasha's. 

From the slightly stunned look on her face, Natasha really hadn't been expecting that. Clint cherished in the look on her face as she curled her hand into Emma's hair, and asked what show the younger redhead was watching. 

As Emma launched into explaining the backstory behind the show (Merlin this time, something new and historical and magical, in Emma's opinion), Clint walked back around the couch. He dropped a kiss on the top of Natasha's head, his heart fluttering ridiculously when Natasha tipped her head back for a real kiss. 

It was ridiculous, that even after so long, she could still give him butterflies, but Clint was yet again reminded that Natasha wasn't just any woman when their eyes met, green on grey. 

Before he could stop himself, his hand had curled into the shape of an ' **I love you** ', and Natasha's lips quirked in response. 

"Any of your famous pancakes left, birdbrain?" she asked, and the warm tone said everything her hands and words didn't. 

"Coming right up, my dear," Clint agreed, stealing one more kiss before he went back into the kitchen.

\---

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tbh, I feel like I've written Natasha a little too soft lately, so I wanted to counter it with some fighting. She feels like she could take down all the Avengers if she really wanted to, but hasn't had a reason to, yet? Is that just me who thinks that? Share your thoughts!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, sorry! Christ, I thought I had this all hashed out but I had one bump that I just couldn't overcome for some goddamn reason. Thank you for checking up on me and for being patient! You're all stars, but especially those who keep asking for updates because along with your love it motivates me. Sorry if there's a lot of nothing happening in this chapter, I'm just reacquainting myself...   
> Thank you for your sweetness!! Love you all!!!  
> Enjoy! <3

 

They dispersed around ten, Emma and Bucky following Steve and Peter to the park outside. The two super-soldiers wouldn't let her chase Peter around, on account of her leg, but Steve gave her a piggyback ride, and Bucky gave Peter a piggyback ride when he became jealous. They played around until Peter got hungry, and then made their way back to the tower for lunch. 

Bruce and Betty were in the kitchen when they got back, and immediately when he laid eyes on her, Bruce was up and standing. 

"Emma! I'm so so-" he blurted out, and was interrupted by Emma tsking at him. 

"Hey, Bruce. How are you feeling? You doing alright?" she asked, smiling at him. He gaped a little, and then frowned, giving her a concerned look. 

"I'm alright. What about you?"

"Peachy keen," she promised, dashing forward to wrap her arms around him. "Look, dude, I knew what I was doing. I'm alright, you're alright, nobody's hurt. I think it was actually a pretty successful attempt at calming the Hulk down."

"You should've let the adults take care of it," Bruce complained, and Emma waved him off. 

"I've already been yelled at, no need to bring it up again."

"But-" 

"No, shh," Emma said, firmly pushing him down into his chair again. "Have you had anything to eat today?"

"Tea, toast," Bruce sighed.

"Not a lot of either, actually," Betty pointed out. Bruce frowned, and Emma put a hand on his shoulder. 

"Well, that settles it. Bucky! Get this man some food."

"What am I, your personal chef?" he asked, but moved towards the fridge to see what he could scrounge up anyways, because he was good like that. 

"Maybe that's what you should do. Work in a restaurant?" Steve suggested, pulling Peter's mittens and hat off. The squirming toddler whined, and Steve softly shushed him. "I'm getting there, buddy, hold on."

Bucky pulled a cucumber out of the fridge, still in his jacket, and chopped some slices up. Emma stole one from the counter, and Bucky swatted her off with his metal hand warningly.

"Give it to the cranky kid," he said, nodding towards Peter. Now he was out of his clothes, and Steve let him run free until food was ready. Peter had developed a love for pasta lately, which was sort of stressing his parents out. It was easy to make but Tony kept insisting he didn't want his little baby to get scurvy or something equally awful.

She caught him on the floor next to the doorway leading to the living room, and fed him the cucumber as Steve and Bucky joined forces in the kitchen. 

"There you go, buddy. It'll be lunch soon, and then we'll eat to our hearts' content. Don't you worry, little man," she hummed soothingly. There was the jangle of a dog collar, and Lucky came out of the common room. 

"Doggie!" Peter declared happily.

"Oh, hey Lucky! Is Kate still here?" Emma asked in surprise, sitting down on the floor and pulling Peter into her lap. Lucky procceded to lick her and then Peter in the face, making the toddler giggle. "Pet nicely, sweetheart."

"Yeah, Kate's still here," came Kate's voice, as she appeared in the doorway. "Clint's forcing me to socialize."

"Oh. Nice," Emma grinned. "Can you convince him to let me go out with friends today, best superhero in the world?" 

Kate smirked at her. "Wanna see the boyfriend that badly, huh?"

"C'mon, Kate!"

"Fine. I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you!" Emma sing-songed. "Peter, can you say 'thank you' to Kate?"

"Thank you," Peter beamed, and Kate smiled at him. 

"Cute. Alright, move you little gremlins, I gotta get something to eat before this place becomes a mess hall, emphasis on the mess."

Emma pulled Peter and Lucky out of the way, and Kate walked over them and towards the freezer to grab some leftovers, probably. 

Peter's mac and cheese was done pretty fast, and Bruce fed him as Steve helped Bucky chop vegetables for snacks and a stir-fry. As soon as the little boy was finished with his food, his head began drooping, and Steve swept in again, taking him into the living room for his nap. 

Finally the food was done, and Emma piled up a pretty big plate and set it in front of Bruce, making him roll his eyes exasperatedly. He picked up the fork when Emma raised her eyebrows threateningly though, and began eating. 

She got her own plate, and so did Bucky and Betty, and they sat down to eat. They chit-chatted about Betty's book and Bruce's experiments and Emma's schoolwork for a while, until Steve returned and piled his own plate high. Making food for so many people was best done in rounds, so when Bucky finished eating, he stood up to make the next batch of food.

"Oh, have you seen this headline? Can't believe Darcy let it pass print," Betty said with a concerned look on her face as Emma gathered their plates up to put in the dishwasher. " _Avengers tower: a gaudy, danger-filled attack-us beacon. About time to get rid of it?_ Yikes. Someone doesn't like the Avengers."

"No matter what it says, I'm sure Darcy will knock some sense into them, or yell very heatedly. No offence Bucky, but she can be downright menacing sometimes," Bruce said, glancing over at Betty's phone. 

"She's kickass," Bucky agreed, a proud little smile playing around the edges of his mouth as he sliced some more bellpepper.

"Got a mean right hook, too. We sparred a few days ago, and she got me in the thigh. It's a surprisingly big bruise for such a little person," Kate said, rubbing at her leg, where the bruise undoubtedly was. 

"Yeah. You know who's got the best right hook I've ever seen in my very long life, though?" Bucky asked. 

"Do tell," Kate said, eyes glittering. 

"Peggy fucking Carter," Bucky said firmly, and Steve lit up with a sort of sad smile. 

"Oh, yeah. Peg was... A real firecracker," he agreed. 

"Oh, wait, the Peg with the lipstick?" Emma asked, and Bucky nodded. The elevator doors slid open, and Tony stepped out, grease in his hair and his palm wrapped in gauze. Sam stepped out too, lugging his Falcon gear with him. He dropped the backpack onto the ground by the shoes, going over to help Bucky, clapping him hard on the back in greeting. 

"Lipstick? Aren't you too young for that?" he asked thoughtfully without looking up from his tablet. 

"I'll wear lipstick if I want!" Emma declared. 

"You don't," Bucky pointed out. Emma put her hands on her hips. 

"Well, no, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't get to!" Bucky shrugged in a 'fair enough' gesture, and Emma waved Tony's confused face off as Steve abandoned his plate and came up behind his husband, sliding his arms around his waist and leaning his chin against his shoulder. "We're talking about Peggy, anyways, and not me."

"Oh, Aunt Peg was a real class act," Tony smirked, reaching back to stroke Steve's face and getting grease all over him too. Steve didn't seem to mind too much. "Pretty much one of the only two people I've ever seen put Howard in his place."

"Jarvis was the other one?" Steve guessed, and Tony smiled at him over his shoulder. 

"You're entirely right, dear. Now, where's my little spider-boy?"

"Napping," Steve grinned. Tony quirked an eyebrow. 

"Is that so?" 

"Mhm," Steve hummed, his voice low and intimate, and Tony raised his eyebrows at him. Steve raised his eyebrows back and moved towards the coffee machine to make his husband a cup. 

The elevator doors opened again, revealing Natasha and Clint, freshly showered from a workout combined with sparring session. 

Natasha stared at Tony, and he stepped back on sheer instinct. They stood like that for about fifteen seconds of pure silence, and then Tony cleared his throat. 

"Well I'm gonna go take a shower, get this grease off of me," he said slowly, not breaking eye-contact with Natasha. Clint moved out of the way, not really feeling like Natasha needed the backup.

"Want me to wrap your hand again afterwards?" Steve asked as he handed Tony a mug of coffee and kissed him on the cheek, because he was a caring and loving husband. Emma thought it was cute. 

"Yeah, I'll let Jarvis know where you can find me, sweetheart," Tony said with a wink his husband's way, and Steve smiled back at him. Kate wolf-whistled, and Tony laughed before he stepped around Natasha into the elevator, sipping his coffee. 

The moment the doors closed, the tension in the room evaporated, and Natasha turned to look back at them. 

"What's for lunch?" she asked.

"Stir-fry. Considering making bread later," Bucky stated, smacking Sam's hand away from the pot he was stirring. The two immediately got into a hushed argument, with a lot of elbowing involved.

"Sounds good," Natasha agreed. 

"How're you feeling?" Clint asked Bruce, brushing a hand over Emma's hair with a smile. 

"I'm good. More concerned for this one," he said, nodding towards Emma, who rolled her eyes at him.

"I'm fine. Oh, yeah, speaking of! Have you guys decided yet? I mean, I'm doing great! I can walk and run without feeling pain!" Emma said, which wasn't at all a lie. Sometimes there was a stab of pain but that was okay, that didn't matter. It would probably pass soon anyway.

Natasha pressed her lips together in displeasure. They had discussed that Emma's healing powers were unpredictable, but Helen had said she seemed like she was doing fine, and if Emma was really hurt she'd probably be moaning about it rather than insisting she was feeling fine. Bucky would also protest way more to her going out with friends if he didn't think she knew what she was doing.

"We're still a little unsure about that. We don't want you to walk around on a leg that hurts, is all, alright? We know that you want to go meet your friends and stuff, but seeing as the accident happened less than twelve hours ago, we're hesitant," Clint explained patiently, gazing into Emma's eyes. Emma pouted, and Natasha hummed with a little smile, pressing an affectionate thumb to her pouty lip.

"Come on, возлюбленная, you see our point. Would you let us go into the world less than twelve hours after we'd come back from a dangerous misison where we got very hurt?"

"Don't even say that stuff out loud, mom," Emma complained, knocking on the wooden kitchen table with a frown.

"Hey Clint, remember that time when you broke your arm and wouldn't admit it because of your pride and you walked around with a broken arm for over two days until Natasha knocked you unconscious and got you to medical?" Kate said casually from her perch on the kitchen island, and Clint looked up at her, entirely bewildered. 

"What?" he asked, even though he knew exactly which occasion she was talking about. From the frowny twitch to Natasha's lips, she also knew which time Kate was talking about. Kate only raised her eyebrows at him.

"Why do you have to be so easy to undermine, Clint?" Natasha sighed. Emma blinked innocently up at the two of them. "You enlisted Kate for this? Are you that desperate to go meet your friends?"

"Nooo..." Emma said, dragging the word out in a not-so-innocent way, and Natasha rolled her eyes. 

"You get three hours out with friends, and then I want you back home and resting. Okay?" 

Emma considered that. 

"Three and a half, and Bucky picks me up when I'm out of time," she offered. 

"I'm your gaming-chair, your chef, and now your chauffeur?" Bucky tossed over his shoulder. 

"You mean you're her bitch," Sam muttered, and was whacked over the back of the head by Bucky.

"Got a problem with that, soldier boy?" she laughed, and he shrugged, moving out of the way for Steve, who was putting the dishes into the dishwasher. 

"Not really. 'S not like I have a lot else going on. Darcy's busy today anyways, and Steve's obviously off to get some."

"Bucky!" Steve exclaimed, scandalized, as Sam wolf-whistled.

"Am I _wrong_ , Stevie?" 

"You shut up."

"See? He's busy," Bucky said, and was wrestled to the floor by two hundred pounds of patriotic blush while Sam laughed. 

"It's what he deserves," Clint said sagely. Emma nodded with the same look on her face as Betty muffled her laugh behind her hand, and Bruce tried to unsuccessfully disappear behind his newspaper.

"That's fair," she agreed. 

" **You're all children** ," Natasha said in Russian with a tut, and pressed a kiss to Emma's forehead. "Fine. It's a deal."

"Thank you!" Emma beamed, surging up to hug Natasha and then Clint. Then she high-fived Kate and ran for the elevator to go get dressed for a day on the town rather than just the park.

"I miss when I could get that excited about getting to go out after being injured," Clint sighed and dropped down in Emma's seat. "Steve, c'mon, let the man up, I need to eat before I collapse."

"Captain Rogers, it seems Sir requires your assistance," came Jarvis' resigned voice from the ceiling. 

"Your man calls," Bucky said very sarcastically, and Steve's ruffled hair appeared above the counter, his face still a little flushed. 

"Bastard," he laughed as he walked towards the stairs. "Bruce, could you-"

"Yes, yes, I got Peter, take your time," Bruce said, appearing from behind the newspaper to wave him off. The moment Steve opened the doors to the stairs, there was a burst of wind, and Pietro appeared, holding a bag of Doritos and eating straight from it. 

"Oof, Stevie, language!" Bucky called after his friend with the slightest of smirks on his lips. 

"Hi Pietro. Sleep well?" Clint asked. 

"Hard to sleep when you wake up in middle of night to get bandages, but yes, after that I was okay. And you?"

"Yeah, no. Not great. But we're gonna nap soon, was the plan."

"What?" Natasha said, raising an eyebrow at him skeptically. Clint blinked. 

"You barely slept. I barely slept because of that. Hence, I'm napping, so you're napping. Simple as that," he said simply. Natasha pursed her lips, but didn't fight him on it. Clint internally fist-bumped himself in victory, before glancing over at Pietro's bag of doritos. "Is that your first meal of the day?"

"No," Pietro said, but Clint was skeptical. 

"Bucky?"

"Have at it," Bucky said, sliding a platter of stir fry over the kitchen island. Pietro heaved a put-upon sigh, but grabbed the plate and sat down to eat. 

"So, when are you guys leaving for the mission?" Bruce asked, finally deciding that the room was safe and folding the paper back up. 

"We leave on Tuesday, meet-up with Coulson tomorrow. Tony's gonna fix some things for me, and then we're in the clear. We'll be gone for about a week, probably," Clint explained. 

"During that time, I'm pretty sure Bucky's moving in on our floor, or Emma moving down to him and Darcy," Natasha said, directing that Bucky's way. He raised a spatula in agreement. "Right. The responsible adults are you, Darcy, and Coulson, who Emma can contact herself she wants to talk to us, or we'll contact Coulson to contact her."

Bruce's eyebrows raised incredulously. 

"What about Steve and Tony?" he asked slowly, eyebrows furrowing. Clint made a face, but Natasha remained impassive. 

"They've shown where their priorities lie."

"So you'd trust your daughter with the green rage monster that hurt her but not the people who tried to rescue her?" Bruce questioned. Both Clint, Natasha, and Betty immediately opened their mouths to protest that, and he waved them silent again. "Look, I know no people in this toiwer who are better equipped to deal with your walking disaster of a child after you, other than Steve and Tony. I say walking disaster very lovingly. Maybe Bucky, but Bucky is also a walking disaster most of the time, no offense."

"You're right," Bucky agreed, without looking up from the pan. Clint got up and grabbed some of the food. "Bishop, Wilson, get your asses in gear and chop me some vegetables. Put the goddamn smoothie down, what is this, a café?"

"Don't be a dick about it," Sam said, and grabbed some more bellpeppers. Kate rolled her eyes, but put her smoothie down and was recruited into peeling garlic cloves. 

"Right, and anyway, Emma's self-sufficent, you'll all eat together anyways, and Happy has promised to drive Emma to the places she needs to go if nobody else can take her. She does have a test tomorrow, and a book she needs to have finished by the end of the week, but other than that, you just need to know where she is," Clint shrugged, sitting back down at the table to eat. Bruce sighed. 

"Can't convince you to dump more responsibility on Steve and Tony? I know they'd love to help," he tried valiantly. 

"In a secondary capacity, fine," Natasha said, meeting his eyes and holding them. "Can we trust you?" 

Bruce pursed his lips, but then sighed in defeat.

"Yes, you can trust me, Natasha," Bruce agreed sincerely. "She still has trackers in her shoes, right?"

"All shoes, some jackets, and I think Jarvis has managed to get some sewn into a few of her pants?" Clint agreed, directing his last statement at the ceiling. 

"Yes, Agent Barton, Sir has made sure Miss Emma's most frequently used jeans are trackable, for safety's sake," he agreed, sounding a little frostier than usual. Bruce raised a hand to back Jarvis up. 

"See? Tony cares very much about Emma."

Natasha didn't reply, she only stood up with an unimpressed look on her face, brushing by Clint and grabbing some stir fry before she disappeared into the elevator. 

"Pushed that a little too hard, huh?" Bruce asked, and Clint shrugged, shoveling his food into his face. 

"She's pissed, and she has all the right in the world to be. I'm gonna be relatively neutral until she and Tony try to fight it out, because I'd like to keep living here. Hard to squeeze so many people into a bachelor pad," he joked, and could hear Kate's eyeroll from by the counter. 

There was a noise from the living room, and Bruce stood up to go fetch Peter from his nap. Once he was back in the kitchen, they pulled his crayons out and sat him down with some paper while Bucky fixed him up with an apple. They turned the conversation to something nicer, with Peter talking about the zoo trip his parents had promised and the adults making the appropriate oohs and aahs about Peter's pictures of various animals. 

Peter was just telling them that a zebra's skin was actually black, when the door to the stairs opened again, and Emma appeared, looking winded and sort of pissed off. She was still wearing her shirt from earlier, but had changed pants, and was barefoot. Her hair was up in a messy bun, and her eyes flashed in anger. 

"Whoah, where's the fire, sweetheart?" Clint asked, turning around in his seat, and instead of replying, Emma pointed an accusing finger Pietro's way. While he was usually very quick, this time he set the plate he was holding relatively carefully down onto the counter, which cost him the precious seconds it would've taken to escape. 

Instead, when he tried to run, Emma grabbed him and slammed him down onto the kitchen floor with a thud and yelled "Tell me where my cat socks are or you have less than ten seconds to live!"

"Oh boy," Bucky exhaled, looking over at Clint and arching an eyebrow. "Want me to break it up?"

Emma didn't look as violently inclined once she had the other guy pinned, and Clint held his hand up. 

"Jarvis, did Pietro take the socks?"

"Mister Maximoff is just fast enough that my sensors have trouble catching him, but the socks in question seem to have mysteriously disappeared after Miss Emma and Mister Maximoff had an argument," Jarvis answered simply. Clint waved Bucky off.

"Meh, let them go at it. Our parenting style is called 'battle it out'," Clint declared proudly. 

"That sounds like a bad idea," Betty hedged. 

"It's working, isn't it?" Clint pointed out, nodding towards where Emma had Pietro pinned to the floor, whilst Pietro struggled fruitlessly against her hold.

"Oh, yes, A-plus, I wish my parents had let me go womano-a-womano with my sister like that when I was growing up," Kate sighed. "That would've been awesome. I would've kicked Susan's fucking ass."

"Stop cursing around Peter, you know Steve's gonna kick your butt," Bucky said, waving his spatula around. 

"Shit, sorry! Fuck- I mean gosh!" Kate said, slapping a hand to her mouth. 

"Don't listen to Aunt Katie, she's crazy," Clint told Peter seriously, and got a nod back as Peter held his hands over his ears. "Oh, you're precious, Peter Pan."

"Dad!" Emma complained. Now when Clint looked up, she was sitting on Pietro and looking disgruntled, his one arm twisted behind his back and the other in a fierce grip. Pietro looked like he was berating himself for not taking Darcy up on being taught self-defense. "Pietro won't tell me where he's put my socks!" 

"Are the socks really worth beating him up for?"

"They're my favorites! And I'm not beating him up," Emma protested. 

"Yes you are!" Pietro growled, wiggling underneath her. 

"You were the one that stole my socks in the first place, you jerk!"

"You were mean to me!"

"Kiddos," Clint sighed loudly. "C'mon. Emma, apologize for being mean, Pietro, let her know where she can find her socks."

"I wasn't mean!" Emma exclaimed incredulously. 

"Wanna consider what you're doing right at this moment?" Clint suggested, and Emma looked down at where she had Pietro pinned. Her lips pursed in a cute frown. "That's what I thought. I want to hear only apologies and sock-coordinates in the next minute, or you're both grounded."

Grudgingly, Emma rolled off of Pietro, and the boy crawled up on all fours, rubbing his shoulder with a frown. 

"I'm sorry I was mean to you," Emma pouted, and Pietro was gone in a flash. Emma gaped, and Clint resigned himself to having to mediate between these two until he and Natasha left for the mission, but then there was a puff of air, and Pietro reappeared, holding the socks in question in hand. 

"Here," he said, looking sort of pouty too.

"Thanks," Emma beamed, putting her socks on. Pietro nodded once, and then he disappeared again. 

"I swear to god, this place gets weirder every single time I visit," Betty said, seemingly to herself. 

"Ready to go soon, sweetie?" Clint asked, scraping the last of the food from his plate. 

"Yeah, soon. I think Damian might be picking me up? We'll see," she said, pulling her phone out of her pocket and disappearing back into the elevator. Clint rolled his eyes heavenwards. 

"As long as you let me know before you go," he called after her, and got a 'mhm' in reply.

\---

Emma hadn't seen Damian in a while, which sort of bummed her out. They vid-called a lot, but he had a lot going on in his night-life right now, and was practically a zombie during the days. He wouldn't tell her anything about it, no matter how much she pried, so she'd taken to being silently supportive instead. Layla was the one to suggest this outing, but Emma was happy for the opportunity to try and make him relax. 

Still... She wanted to look good too. While Damian probably didn't care, she sort of did. He was always wearing button up shirts and slacks, and Emma wore nerdy t-shirts and Avengers merch. They made an odd couple, that way. She didn't want to look out of place today. 

The shirt from Wanda's closet was burgundy and one of the things Darcy had gotten her, to make her look presentable for future press-events. It looked more like a fancy blouse than anything Emma owned, and Wanda was only one size above her, in comparison to Natasha, who was more well-endowed in the chest area. Emma was honestly a little jealous.

She snuck through the vents this time, to make sure she wouldn't encounter Pietro. She hadn't said anything mean to him, he'd just taken offense to her saying he might want to get a haircut or a headband or else his hair was going to get in the way of his crime-fighting. 

Anyway, she didn't want to fight him, and she knew that the kitchen island, where she usually dropped down, was occupied, so she crawled over to the vent in the living room and dropped down there instead, dropping down into the couch and immediately sprawling out. The tv was playing an episode of Ben 10, it looked like, and she mentally shrugged.

Emma wiggled around until she could pull her phone out of her pocket, and texted Damian.

 _how r u gettin there_  

She didn't expect a fast answer, so she settled down to try and figure out what the hell Ben 10 was. As it turned out, it was entirely useless, seeing as she got an answer almost immediately.

_Pennyworth will drive me. Do you wish to be picked up?_

She was just about to reply when she was startled by Wanda's voice and nearly dropped her phone.

"Is that my top?" Wanda exclaimed incredulously, leaning over the back of the couch with a wrinkle between her brows. Her hair was in a braid, that looked like it was of Thor's making. 

"Currently it's mine," Emma declared, and Wanda's eyebrows furrowed further. 

"No, it's mine. Give it," she said firmly. 

"C'mooon, it's just for today! I'm going out with my friends later, and it looks so good on me!" Emma whined, leaning away from the older girl's hands. 

"Get your own shirt!"

"You keep stealing my hoodies and stretching the arms out! If you use my clothes, I'm gonna use yours, dude!" Emma exclaimed, flipping her off, just as Wanda flipped her off back. They glared at each other for maybe four solid seconds, and then Wanda pursed her lips. 

"I'm getting ice cream. Want to go with?" 

"Hell yes, let me grab my jacket. Will you drive me to the mall afterwards?" Emma asked, and hopped over the couch. Wanda nodded and her hands flickered in scarlet as a pair of car keys flew through the air and into her palm.

"Hey, watch it! People can get struck in the face with that thing!" Sam exclaimed, hands raised suspiciously over his head. Sam hadn't really gotten comfortable with Wanda since she'd shown up, and she wasn't doing anything to ease the way. Peter thought that Uncle Sammy nearly getting hit in the head with flying car keys was pretty funny, so he giggled from the chair with the booster seat he was sitting in by the kitchen table. 

"Sorry, crybaby," Wanda said, twirling the car keys around a finger with an arched eyebrow.

"Watch it," Clint said in a sing-song tone, giving her a pointed look. "Car privileges can be revoked if enough people get hit by stray flying keys." To that, the Scarlet Witch rolled her eyes, but clutched the keys in hand firmly.

Wanda had decided she wanted a drivers license, which meant she needed a licensed driver to teach her. Seeing as Steve was a maniac behind the wheel and not actually licensed by anyone, Tony regularly crashed cars, Bruce was too easy to scare into a Hulk, and Natasha didn't actually have a drivers license in her own name, Darcy and Clint were assigned as her tutors. She'd caught up quick and managed to get her license on the first try, which was why she was now always looking for a reason to go somewhere with one of Tony's fancy cars.

Emma came out from the living room, hopping into some Nike's with paint-spatter all over them as she went. As soon as she straightened up, Clint blinked.

"Is that Wanda's top?" he asked incredulously as he stared at the low-cut, tight, burgundy shirt Emma was wearing. 

"It looks good on her," Wanda said, giving him a challenging look to say otherwise, and Emma beamed up at her.

"It _does_ , doesn't it?" she said happily, tugging her spring coat over her shoulders. It was purple, a hand-me-down from Kate, as were the shoes. Clint had no clue why Kate was so obsessed with dressing Emma up in Hawkeye-themed clothes, but he sort of appreciated the support. 

"Now, see, that's is exactly what it's like having a sister. You're already set, dude, don't need any more siblings," Kate declared from where she was sitting on the kitchen island as she shoved a spoonful of yogurt into her mouth. "You fight, then you get along again miraculously whenever someone else tries to interfere."

"If Wanda's my sister, and Clint's her dad, and you're Clint's... whatever. Does that make you my aunt?"

"Aunt Katie-Kate," she hummed. "I dunno. I don't think I should have a title because that sort of labels me as a responsible adult, and I really shouldn't be your go-to responsible adult." 

"You can be a fun, vodka aunt," Emma offered with a shrug. "That's the title without the responsibility."

"Nice," Kate agreed with a grin, shooting fingerguns at her.

"Pietro!" Wanda said distantly. "We are going to buy ice cream without you!"

There was a rush of wind, and Pietro appeared suddenly next to Peter, who laughed as his hair was ruffled by it. 

"How dare you!" Pietro exclaimed, looking absolutely appalled and shocked. Emma burst out laughing too at the shocked look on his face. Wanda smirked. 

"Don't worry, puff boy. I was just calling for you," she teased, and Pietro tapped his foot on the floor a little angrily, before crossing his arms over his chest and tipping his nose up. 

"Maybe I don't want to go," he said haughtily, and Clint rolled his eyes. 

"Go with your sisters, go, get out of here," he sighed loudly. "Don't be a drama queen, and grab a jacket on your way out. No taking one of the cars that lets the top down! If any of you get a cold, it's your own fault, and I'm not going to run around cooking hot chicken noodle soup!" 

All three were already in the elevator by the time he'd finished his spiel, and Emma laughed sweetly at him. 

"Love you too, dad!" she called, and Clint got a wave from Wanda and a big grin from Pietro before the doors closed behind them and they disappeared. 

"Aw, papa bear," Kate mocked, and Clint took the yogurt out of her hands for that, much to her protests. 

"Meanies don't get yogurt, isn't that right Peter?" he said, holding the yogurt away from her. 

"Right!" Peter agreed. Sam burst out laughing, and fist-bumped little Peter, before being ordered to hand him a green crayon. 

\---

**Author's Note:**

> yes, yes, I know Vision was created by Ultron and Ultron by Tony, let me live okay, I know. I'm just ignoring AoU but stealing the characters I like.


End file.
